


Nightcall (A Hunter!Ignis x Vampire!Reader Story)

by MissYunie



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Action & Romance, Affection, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Blood Drinking, Blood Kink, Bloodlust, Bonding, Cuddling & Snuggling, Daemons, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Falling In Love, Feeding, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Gentle Sex, Horniness, Kissing, Mating, Mating Bites, Post-Coital Cuddling, Protectiveness, Romance, Rough Sex, Sex, Smut, Soulmates, True Love, Vaginal Sex, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-15 06:56:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 64,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14785637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissYunie/pseuds/MissYunie
Summary: “The hunters and representatives of the Crown are all but helpless to solving the ghastly cases of assault and murder committed by an unidentifiable daemon that threatens innocent Insomnians by drinking them dry of their blood. Cast into a life of seclusion and loneliness, you hide in fear from the menace that manslaughters the populace as you survive to the best of your ability. Unbeknownst to all, it is YOU who bears a horrifying secret that could leave you dead if revealed. And as chance may have befallen you, it is a certain royal advisor who is adamant in finding the culprit to these atrocious murders that discovers you unexpectedly and marks you as the offender. But what shortly ensues in the tension of this encounter leaves you both unprepared in more ways than one.”*Slight AU that takes place halfway during the World of Ruin. Luna still is gone, Noctis is asleep in the Crystal, and Ignis has his sight as he does in Verse 2 of “Episode Ignis.” In this AU of Eos, people have never left the Crown City after the attack. At this point in time, a murky daylight only lingers for several hours a day, the remainder of the time cast in total darkness and plagued by the daemons.*





	1. The Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> I had never really ever considered writing an AU, let alone a telling of the classic Vampire x Human relationship since it always seems to be written by so many authors. However, several conversations with my dear Tumblr/Discord friends about how unbelievably attractive both Ignis’s neck and throat are left me with the inspiration to play around with the idea of writing a vampire-esque story. However, in the case of many fan fics where Mr. Scientia is portrayed as the vampire and the female is his prey, I wanted to do a little bit of role reversal and have Ignis be the hunter that tracks down the leading lady. I think you will thoroughly enjoy this take on the classic coupling of man and ‘monster.’ 
> 
> As always, I find music to be exceptionally inspirational. In the case of this short novel, similar to how I did with my Iggy and Reader ' epic novel' "All This and Heaven Too" (Found [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13073280/chapters/29906379) ), each chapter of this story has a designated song to set the mood. For this story “Nightcall,” your soundtrack is provided by the amazing band London Grammar. The moodiness and sultriness of their songs feel more than appropriate for this dystopian world.  
> What was also fun about writing this story was that unlike my main fic that relied heavily upon the lore of the FFXV world, I was able to use some creative license with this story. Roles of the characters though are essentially the same as they were in the main game. 
> 
> If you are familiar with my other works, you will know that I tend to focus a lot on using specific vocabulary words and descriptors. Not that I was lazy with writing this story by any means, but I wanted to focus more so on the plot and meaning behind the characters' actions. A lot of really deep and dark stuff happens here.
> 
> As always, your feedback and comments are greatly appreciated! ^_^
> 
> *You can find me on Tumblr as missyunie!

_I’m giving you a nightcall to tell you how I feel_

_I’m gonna drive you through the night down the hills_

_I’m gonna tell you something you don’t want to hear_

_I’m gonna show you where it’s dumped but have no fear_

_\- London Grammar – “Nightcall”_

_“Three found injured and two more declared dead as once again the daemonic mystery assailant continues to assault innocent Insomnians. The victims have yet to be identified, declare officials, but officials report the continued pattern of injury: puncture wounds upon the necks of the surviving and the drainage of blood and bodily dismemberment in those declared dead. The Hunter HQ head Dave Auburnbrie is adamant more than ever to uncover any intel about this potentially new or evolved species of daemon that is responsible for the attacks across Lucis. As Hunter HQ continues to search for the culprit, while state of officials realize the stress of limited daytime hours that are barely day themselves, Insomnian spokespersons recommend more than ever for citizens to remain indoors during all nighttime hours and to conduct all business affairs during hours of ‘light.’”_

_No…no, not again_ , you sighed heavily as you slowly sat down the tabloid upon the floor. How many nights. How many nights in a row had the same story flooded the news. How many times have your read the same old story that was enough to make your flesh crawl as you returned to your den each night fearing for your own life as you yourself attempted to find the perpetrator that plagued the people of this fallen city that didn’t deserve anymore tragedy.

It had been how many years now since the darkness began its descent. Each ounce of daylight shortening by seconds as the days transpired, even the remaining daylight itself cast in shadows as the dark miasma began to blanket the atmosphere. With each further blackening of the days meant the exponential increase in the spread of daemoic energy, and as the time passed more hopeless souls succumbed to the sickness of the Scourge in the air and became what they feared the most.

With the Oracle dead for five years at this point and unable to provide her healing miracles to those plagued with the Scourge and with the apparent disappearance of the heir to the Throne himself, it was all people could do to keep their wits about them as they tried to retain as normal of lives as they could in the very little time they had to cherish.

Gods let the light return soon enough so that these poor souls can find their peace in the sunlight.

You swallowed hard as you continued to look down at the newspaper that you had managed to swipe from a trashcan and before the daemons began to emerge. There was a chill within your den, you having stupidly left open one of the side windows to the backside of your quarters, and running over to the windowsill you hastily shut it. And yet, despite the iciness within the room and with you running your hands over your arms as if to warm yourself, you knew that such a motion was merely a voluntary reaction out of past experience. Biting your lip, you turned back to the other window in which you entered, realizing in your foolishness that you had left that open too. As you made your way over to the window, you eyed up the duffle bag that you had miraculously managed to carry over your shoulder as you had scaled the wall to reach your safe haven. You quickly shut the window, pulled the latch, and yanked down the shades to keep yourself safe from any potential intruder that may have followed you throughout your venture during this late hour of the evening.

You snorted to yourself at this sick thought though, for anyone that dare step into your space would quickly have reason to run in fear, but for reasons that made you yourself cringe.

Another sigh escaped your lips as you began to play with your hands. You cast your eyes around the room, a solitary two-room “suite” that you had somehow managed to finagle and keep secret in the last eight months that you had begun living in solitude. The building in which you stayed had been a long-abandoned apartment complex in a broken-down district of the Crown City, but you using your past experiences of the former life you once lived allowed you to use your expertise and manipulate stolen meteorshards into providing your den with a source of power. Though by no means anything impressive, what you had was enough to get by for your circumstances, and thank the Astrals themselves that the former tenants here had too abandoned their belongings. The humble abode had a very simple living room of a couch and there was a small kitchenette in which you sought no use for. On a book shelf was your stack of tabloids as well as stolen hunter reports that were documenting all the cases of daemon attacks, this recent case in particular having its own pile as you extensively read and studied them each night for any sign or indication of who the culprit could be. To the exterior side room was a bedroom and bath that would provide you with privacy to wash and soothe yourself after your nightly rounds, and yet as you stood there and stared across the room in that general direction, your stomach churned at the irony of all the amenities in which you managed to possess.

It was only just now that you realized the entirety of this time you had been in darkness, and grimacing to yourself you padded over to the solitary lamp on a table in the corner of the living room and flicked it on. The room was immediately cast in a soothing glow, and finding for but a second how the light made you feel a little bit more human, you sighed again as you once shifted your gaze to the knapsack you had placed in the center of the room. With your stomach growling, all the while you feeling yourself sick at acknowledging your hunger, you reluctantly grabbed on the handle and dragged it over to the couch.

It was time to feed.

You swallowed hard, fighting back the urge to vomit as you unzipped the bag, and immediately out of instinct your nostrils flared and your eyes blackened at the sight of what lay in its compartments. Reaching in with trembling hands you pulled out one of the objects at hand, its form squishing in your small grasp and its contents still warm from your harvesting.

Blood. A bag of blood. And this was to be your meal.

Eight months now since you succumbed to this condition. Eight months of feeding upon the life force of another being that left you feeling utterly disgusted and appalled at your very existence. Whatever the daemon you had become was very much the same in which you had read about every night for months upon end, you ever so desperate to find another of your kind and better understand what it was you were to become. And yet, there was something so very different about you, unlike the daemons that fed upon human blood. Unlike the beasts that tore at the lives of innocent humans and drank their life force dry while dismembering the corpses for their own pleasure, here you were, fighting onto your humanity. Here you were, cognizant and sentient of all that you witnessed and felt as you hid in the shadows of the daylight and kept yourself as hidden is possible in the calm of dark in attempts to refrain as much as possible from human contact in fear of hurting someone innocent.

And now here you were, holding on to a bag of blood, the blood collected from that of a slaughtered Garula from one of the few remaining butcheries within the city.

Although your hands were human-like as the rest of you, by the sight of the blood your fingers began to lengthen and turn into claws. You were shaking, biting down upon your lip as to steady yourself. You trembled as your sharpened fingertips pressed into the bag, the sheer and utter instinct to feed now kicking in but repulsing you nonetheless. Attempting to calm yourself as much as possible in fear of popping the bag out of sheer strength that you had come to possess as your conditioned worsened, slowly but surely you felt your somehow still-humanly bright eyes suddenly darken as your tiny little fangs extended in your mouth. Breathing heavily, tears began to stream down your face as you opened your mouth and sank your teeth into the packet. Instantly the warmth of the blood gushed down your throat, your nostrils flaring erratically and whimpers muffling in your mouth as you sluggishly sucked the bag dry, and yet the young woman that you once were sobbed at the vile monster you were.

With the contents of the Garula blood dry, your mouth now stained in the corners and your breathing inconsistent, you bit down on your own lip once more and began to cry harder than you ever could have imagined.

 _Why…why am I putting myself through this?_ You pled with yourself as you buried your face in your claws, the scent of blood driving you mad and almost sending you in a fitful frenzy. And yet, the brave and hopeful woman within your soul remained as she fought with the daemon that overtook her life.

 _Why? Why are you fighting?_ You asked yourself as your teeth sunk down into your lower lip, causing your mouth to bleed. _Because you’re going to see a way out of this. There is going to be a way to get rid of this Starscourge and like hell are you going to give up on yourself before those hunters and officials find a cure like Lunafreya used to give._

“How? Just how the hell is that going to ever happen?” You said miserably to yourself as you used the back of your hand to wipe away the blood on your mouth, and staring at your claws you shuddered in disgust at the blood that blemished your pale skin. “I should have just ended myself. There isn’t any going back from this.”

_End yourself? You’ve got friends and a mom and a dad and a sister who are wondering where the hell you went. You didn’t run away to hide and protect yourself from hurting them if you didn’t think it was important to keep yourself alive. Now get a hold of yourself, dammit._

Your tears slowly started to subside but nonetheless your stomach continued to roil. You were right. How could you give up for their sake? Gods forbid if they were the next victim in one of these attacks lead on by your daemonic brethren, how in the name of the Astrals could you ever possibly ‘live’ with yourself for the remainder of what shred of humanity was left in you if they had died without you ever getting the chance to say goodbye?

_What do I do? How am I going to get through this?_

For a second a cold shiver came over you, and like a trained beast tutored in providing a watchful eye over its master, your eyes snapped over to one of the windows, your gaze focusing intently upon the panels of the shade. Why you had felt all of a sudden that you were being watched, you could not guess, but sitting in the stillness of the night, the only sounds heard the dull hum of the burning of the lightbulb of the lamp and the whirr of the refrigerator, in this moment you cursed your beastly senses in allowing you to hear such infernal noises with precise clarity. But as you sat, perhaps your paranoia was lead upon by something you had felt you had all but forgotten to feel in all these months.

You didn’t really need sleep anymore after what you had become. Your life now passed sluggishly like an endless eternity as day flowed seamlessly into night. And yet, for the first time in almost eight months since you contracted this strain of the Scourge and no longer sought respite in rest, with your qualms of what your next day of survival would bring you on your mind, the shred of human that was left in you won tonight’s battle; for, at this very moment as the exhaustion led upon by your tears hit you and you curled up into a ball on the couch, you found yourself fall helplessly and humanly into a world of restless slumber.

************

Days continued to pass and yet still no word from the Insomnian deputies nor the hunters on what it was that was menacing innocent lives. Almost cursing these men who failed to provide protection to the victims, as they had in the past seemed to be always so successful in taking out the daemons with ease, you yourself as a fiend began to fear for what atrocity could possibly be causing such devastation to the populace across Lucis. Was this lost soul committing the crimes really so far gone as to kill without thought? And even worse, was this what you were to become yourself if given the time to progress further in your condition?

Paranoia was starting to get the best of you, and even with your fearsome strength you possessed in your muscles, bones, and nerves, you didn’t feel peace of mind as night after night you felt as though _you_ were being stalked by this daemon.

 _Oh gods, as if I would even know what to do with myself if I encountered that horrible thing,_ you frowned to yourself as a tear streamed down your face. Even though you essentially didn’t need to breathe, you did so heavily out of instinct as you finished scaling up the wall to your complex, today’s duffle bag heavier than the last. Blessing your luck in that the hunters managed to slay a Kujata that would provide fresh flesh for the Insomnian population, you could barely have kept your wits about you as you managed to collect what blood you could that had drained through the grates at the butchery. Despite the process being tiresome work and perhaps not the most sanitary (as if bacteria was a concern to you at this point), nonetheless you managed to secure several loads of the stuff that would be your breakfast, lunch, and dinner for at least a good week or so; thus, you did not have to worry about going out on your own “hunts” for your food source. Upon entering through the window you made your way over to the small refrigerator in your quarters and sat the bag down, unzipping it in the process and removing the bags of blood inside to put them in the fridge; sickeningly enough, for whatever reason or another you found the fluid more bearable to ingest when it was on the colder side.

Sighing dejectedly, you inhaled deeply as you took note of the scent of blood that was somewhere on your body. Having thought you made precise care to not leave any evidence of your work from the butchery upon your being, you began to panic that perhaps some of the fluid got on you and could have potentially left a trail right to your quarters. Inspecting the floor for any remnants, you saw none, but nonetheless you hastily made your way into the bathroom and flicked on the light to inspect yourself.

There upon your cheek was a small splatter of blood, and how you with all heightened senses failed to notice the smell of such you had no idea; perhaps it was your haste in wanting to get your dirty job done as soon as possible that made you ignorant to the mess. Turning on the faucet (yes, you managed to hook up a running water source to your den as well) you splashed your cheeks with the icy water, the sensation upon your face making you feel a little more human and much more alive. Grabbing onto a washcloth, you patted your face dry and began to inspect yourself in the mirror.

You bit your lip at what you saw, insure in this moment of how you truly felt about the daemon that stared back. She looked young and vibrant, supple wavy hair tumbling down her shoulders and with soft cheekbones accentuating a delicate face that was drawn into a frown. Her eyes that were once a human shade of blue now blazed a crimson in the pupils, and the cheeks that once blushed pink with joy were white as marble. Her lips were pallid like cold stones and her brows were furrowed together in mourning, and gods did you never see a more pitiful sight than this.

And yet, deep inside, behind those saddened eyes that flickered with the wrath of a monster, there was a young woman who would yank at the bars of her prison to escape her confinement, screaming and crying for sanctuary with no voice to hear her.

_Get a hold of yourself, dammit._

“I know, I know…” You muttered to yourself as you let out a faux breath. “I know. I’m trying. I promise. And I’m not going to let this Scourge take me down without a fight.”

_I guess I better feed now before I start to feel any more tired and lightheaded…_

You turned off the lights and exited the bathroom, but just as you re-entered the living area you stopped dead in your tracks.

Something…something wasn’t right. Something was off, and your beastly senses immediately began to pulsate like wildfire as your eyes darted frantically around the burrow for what it was. The smell of the Kujata blood still permeated the room and filled your senses entirely, and yet, with your nostrils flaring there was something else. Something else that you had never smelt before that began to make your lifeless veins course with blood. With your chest suddenly rising and heaving, your lips parted as you desperately inhaled in attempt to taste whatever it was you smelled, and yet, in the fear of this moment your brain would not allow you to process a single bit of this new stimuli.

But just as you took another step forward you felt your feet cemented in their tracks, for as you cast your gaze across the darkened room, your eyes widened in terror at the graveness of a very fatal error.

There, the window in which you always made sure to secure after you traversed the wall to your apartment every night was cast open for anyone to enter.

_Oh…oh shit…Oh shit, no! How could I? I could I forget? Then what-_

All of a sudden you felt your body thrust up against the wall, your face smacking into the paint and your palms pressing into the surface to steady yourself. A whimper of pain escaped your lips as your temple and cheek bone collided with the wall and instantly tears began to stream down your face and your head spun with excruciating pain. Gods, you had become so strong, so agile and nimble at the hands of your curse and yet suddenly your limbs were like liquid as you tried to pull your claws away from the wall and turn around and strike at your attacker. And yet, all strength seemed to leave you in your surprise as you realized that you were way past your feeding time and did not have your usual strength to protect you. It was just as you were about to use your buttocks to push back against your striker did you find an elegantly crafted dagger now pressed to the base of your throat and a gloved hand grasping at the back of your head and pushing your face further against the wall.

“Remain in place until I say so and perhaps I might spare you a moment longer,” uttered a smooth and accented voice that spoke with ferocity and confidence.

You were frozen. Completely and utterly frozen. This was not a daemon. This was not the fiend of your kind that you initially assumed had followed your trail and into your quarters. No, this was a man. A very skilled and supple fighter who knew what the hell he was doing, and as you felt the blade of his dagger press a little bit too close for comfort across your throat, by the feel of the steel upon your flesh did your other sudden worse fear come to fruition.

_A hunter. He’s a hunter. And he’s about to kill me._

And so you said nothing, your body quaking furiously despite how much you tried to mask your fear, and the man sensing your sudden complacency grasped upon your head and yanked you, sending you tumbling into the floor on your knees. You yelped as your knees made contact, you gritting your teeth as you tried to make sense of all that was happening.

With your eyes cast in fear to the floor, you heard him approach, the heaviness of his boots resounding like a stampede over the floor boards. His strides were with purpose, and with each step, the human side of your soul begged for mercy as with step by step, he stalked closer to you as if ready to strike.

_Oh gods, what do I do? What do I say? Gods, he’s going to kill me. He’s going to kill me and I’m not even going to have a chance to-_

“Look at me.”

Huh?

You felt as though the color drained from your face, and biting you lip you could hardly contain the miasmal adrenaline that coursed through your body. You shifted your eyes up ever so slightly to see a pair of boots in your vision, your daemon eyes capable of seeing the leather and buckles with clarity even in the umbral room.

“Look at me,” He repeated more harshly this time, and something about the way his accented words rolled of his tongue suddenly made you squirm.

But sensing that your survival depending very much upon your complacency, you obeyed, and by gods were you not prepared.

For if you could blush, you would have blushed, despite the apparent ferocious and violent nature of this hunter as he stared down at you. He was tall, very tall compared to your tiny frame, his posture emitting an air of elegance and sophistication as his broad shoulders were pulled back into a very formidable stance. His sandy blond and feathery hair was slicked back neatly into a pompadour, save for a solitary strand of hair that fell delicately over his beautifully structured face. His groomed brows were drawn together in a defensive manner as if he held a grudge with you that existed for centuries, and his lips which lower entity was scarred were parted as he breathed in evenly. You could not help but take note of the other markings that marred his sculpted face, both eyes slashed as well as the bridge of broadened nose. His feet were wide apart, his muscular and long lengths joining together at the juncture of lithe and taut hips that were all but hidden behind jeans and a tucked-in button down shirt. As you trailed your eyes up from his face and down to his feet and back up, you inhaled sharply as your gaze fell upon the his very exposed neck and clavicle where dangled a skull pendant at the base of his throat.

_No…oh gods no, save me._

Your nostrils flared at such a breathtaking sight yet your body continued to tremor. This man now stared down upon you angrily with his daggers drawn defensively in front of him and pointed down at your face and you could hardly press your fear in all of this.

How well had you avoided human contact all this time to the best of your ability. How you fought with your urges to feast upon the flesh of what you were made to kill. How you fought tooth and nail with the daemon that consumed you to kill an innocent life without a moment’s hesitation. Yet, you were no stranger to the aroma of humans, the scent in which the species emanated more delectable than you would care to admit to and all the reason you fled from it to keep your senses about you. It was now however though that as you sat upon your knees with your nails almost scraping into the floorboards did you notice the man’s smell that permeated the air, a fragrance unlike any other which you had the joy of experiencing. He smelled of something utterly indescribable, like spices and earth and wood and with your quivering lips as you breathed in you took note of the hint of coffee beans. Biting your lip, you felt your mouth begin to water and your hands begin to tremble, as for there, deep inside this beast, the woman within you felt herself be overcome with a sense of desire as if closing your eyes you could become lost in the embrace of his perfume.

Never. Never before, even as a human had you ever felt such an impression, and in the here and now, there was something within you that failed to comprehend what he was doing to you.

“What are you?” He asked you rather harshly, and his suddenness in contrast to your delicate thoughts caused you to jump. “You are what we have been hunting, aren’t’ you? Answer me. Now.”

You were speechless as your teeth sunk into your lower lip, your spine prickling as he took a cautious step closer to you. Gods did you suddenly beg that he wouldn’t come an inch closer out of fear for what you would do.

_Oh Six...he…he thinks it’s me. He thinks that it’s me. That I’m the one responsible for the attacks and murders…_

For a second you found yourself rather offended, knowing the principles to which you had lived with your condition since contracting it. But knowing that your life depended upon your answer, you kept yourself best to be levelheaded and spoke your next words very carefully.

“No…I’m not. I’m not the one you are looking for. I could never do such a thing.”

He laughed dryly as he took a step to the side to circle you as if inspecting you. “Oh really?” He replied quite condescendingly. “And you expect me to believe you? I’ve been keeping a watchful eye upon you this week once I tracked you down and you have not one bit of support in your defense to counter your questionable behavior.”

His words hurt. Gods, did his scorn hurt as you suddenly felt tears stream down your face, and whatever it was that was compelling you to crumble like this before this stranger you had no idea. “It’s not me! I promise you that it’s not me! You have to believe me! I-“

“Believe you? For whatever reason should I believe you? Show me your proof. Give me a reason to not slay you upon the spot and call it a day.” He stopped in his tracks behind you, his gaze upon you as if he was already piercing you with his daggers.

You swallowed hard, your mouth completely dry as you ran your tongue over your fangs to keep your wits about you. “Let me…let me stand. Let me turn on the lights and I can show you. Please, you just have to believe me.”

He was silent for a moment as he slowly maneuvered himself back in front of you, and you heard him inhale sharply. “Look at me,” he repeated once more, and in fear of your life you quickly obliged. Casting your gaze up at him, you felt your chest constrict at the way he stared down at you, his stunning eyes behind sleek visors boring right into yours, and yet as he looked at you, you could not help but notice something indiscernible within his gaze, as if he was studying every word you uttered. Feeling your flesh go hot, it was all you could do to calm as he titled his head and scrutinized you, him seeming conflicted as he watched your tears trickle to the floor below. “I shall allow you to do such. But one false motion and you’re gone for.”

You swallowed again and nodded to him. “I promise. Just please, let me prove myself.”

He nodded, and with trembling limbs you managed to bring yourself to your feet. As you stood you felt yourself instantly overwhelmed at the presence of this man, him much taller than you anticipated as you finally were able to get a good look at his height. Looking at him for a just a second as to not fluster yourself, you slowly padded over to the lamp and flicked on the light, and when you turned back around to look at him his expression was caught off guard.

Obviously the man’s vision must have been more than exemplary if he were able to maneuver himself so skillfully and catch you off guard in the darkness of your own quarters, but now that the warming and soothing light cast itself over your private space and light up the paleness of your face, it was as if the monster he had anticipated seeing in the full light was not who he truly expected.

He could only look at you with parted lips as he only slightly lowered his daggers, and despite his defensive stance you noticed the slight slackening of his shoulders. But as your daemonic instincts started to kick in slightly in your attempt to survive as you moved slowly around the room to show him your evidence, your ears picked up on the distinct sound that sent your dead heart a flutter.

It was not only his breathing that was slightly off kilter now but the pumping of blood within in his chest, for the heartbeat you heard now was sporadic and uneven.

_He’s…is he scared? Is he frightened of me, now that he sees me fully? Or is he…is he thinking something else?_

You tried to ignore your curiosity as the need to prevail and survive was of the essence. Making your way over to the bookshelf, you grabbed a small stack of the tabloids and made you way back over to the man, taking careful steps to keep your movements even. Avoiding his gaze you extended your sharpened fingers to give them to him, your eyes cast to the floor as a sign of armistice.

“Take these and look. This might not be much, but I feel like this might show you my innocence.”

The man hesitated for a second but obliged, and with your skin prickling he took the newspapers from your hand. You continued to avoid his gaze as you heard him flip from paper to paper, him sitting them upon the couch as he examined them.

“These…these are the accounts of the attacks as they have transpired. Why on earth have you kept them?” He inquired, and at his question you slowly brought your eyes up to meet his. Freezing in place, it was only now that you could see just how utterly beautiful they were, the irises of his orbs behind his visors a stunning green that made your chest clench. Keeping yourself grounded as best as you could, you took a deep breath, only praying to the Astrals that he would believe you.

“I’ve been wanting answers too,” you said quietly. “I doubt you will believe me for saying this, but I sure as hell hope you do. For months now since these attacks have been reported, I’ve been following the stories. I’ve been trying to find answers to who or what is doing this. For you see,” and you paused, feeling your tears start to fall down your face once again, “I’ve been hoping to find a way to save myself in all of this in praying that I don’t become what this lost soul did. And with knowing that I have family that I’ve run from to protect myself from hurting and in fear of seeing their names here in the papers, I want to do what I can to keep myself prepared…”

The man inhaled sharply, and yet despite him keeping his guard up, there was something in his stance that shifted. Did he believe you? Was he going to take your word seriously? And so you continued just as he was about to speak.

“I know what you’re thinking,” you said somewhat shyly and fearfully. “This is some pretty bullshit evidence. But let me put it this way: why on earth would I be keeping newspapers if I was the one ruthlessly slaughtering innocent people? I doubt that keeping track of reading material would be the last thing on my mind. And besides,” you paused, your nerves tingling on end now as your toes began to squirm at his scrutinizing gaze, “I’m sure that with your hunter expertise that you can’t carry on a civil conversation with most daemons. I guess that gives me some shred of credit.”

How you were able to talk so coherently you had no idea, because deep on the inside you were an emotional wreck. Yet through all of this the hunter studied your words, movements, and body language like his life depended upon it. There was something utterly fascinating about the way his eyes twinkled as if his analytical mind was running a million miles a minute, and for whatever reason or another, this was all the more fuel added to the fire of your sudden case of jitteriness.

This man was no ordinary man, you could tell, and by the quickening of his pace of his heart and the slight sheen of sweat that accumulated at his temples, it was getting harder for you by the second to remain as composed as he was coming across as.

The hunter narrowed his gaze and lowered his daggers, yet his eyes never left yours. “You do not deny that you are indeed ill,” he murmured as he studied your face for any indication that you were lying somehow. “Then…how is it that you feed if you do not do the same as those that share your abilities? I see you each night, slinking away and only to come out with your bag full of whatever it is it carries…”

To this your stomach lurched and embarrassingly you looked away from him as you began to play with your nails. “I can assure you that what I do harms not a single soul. I swear upon it.” But you found the strength to smile wryly at him as attempt to hide your shame. “But I have to say that nonetheless this isn’t something I am proud to admit.”

The man paused and narrowed his eyes again, his hips shifting slightly as he resituated his stance. You had to look away from him once again, his body language suddenly doing things to you that your mind wasn’t anticipating to comprehend.

“I don’t think that you are the in position right now to be concerned of your reputation. I do think, if I recall, that your life is currently on the line.”

And yet, despite the harshness of his words there was something in his tone that was not. Perhaps he was lead on to believe you but merely did not know what to make of all of this. And so, avoiding his gaze once again, nervously moving to the refrigerator you opened the handle and reached inside reluctantly, grabbing onto a small bag of blood. “Forgive me for this,” you said, turning around to hand it to him but avoiding his gaze all the way. “But when one wants to survive and behave themselves, sometimes you have to make compromises. This? This is my compromise.” And the man took the bag, a soft breath leaving his lips as out of the corner of your eyes he began to inspect it thoroughly with his gloved-hands. “That there?” You continued carefully, feeling mortified. “That’s blood from the butchery. They slit the animals to drain them of their blood and that’s where I come in and collect. That there is Kujata blood. If you don’t believe me you can run blood tests to prove it. But I promise you that there isn’t one drop of human blood in that what so ever.”

Part of you expected this man to be repulsed by that which he held, but as you quickly pondered it you realized that surely he was more than accustomed to shedding blood at his own hands. But as you found the courage to look up into his face you could see that his countenance was strained and his expression mingled with curiosity, surprise, and something else you couldn’t quite figure out.

He handed the blood back to you as you hastily put it in the fridge as if you yourself wanted to be rid of it, and turning back around you looked up into his eyes to see him staring at you intently. As you watched him you see him mull his thoughts over in his mind before he spoke as if he was flabbergasted by all he just heard.

“Then,” he began, taking a deep breath of his own, “that which you feed upon is animal blood and animal blood only.”

“Y-Yes,” you said breathlessly, and if you could blush you surely would have done so at the way his eyes widened at your answer.

“And never once before in your life have you fed upon or harmed a human.”

“…No. Not once. Not ever.”

He was silent, and his silence was almost unbearable as his scent once more began to invade your nostrils and the fluttering beat of his heart reverberated in your ears. Your mouth went dry at such as your eyes were locked to his, and it was all you could do, that now in this silent moment shared between man and fiend, to prevent your eyes from shifting downward to the lean musculature of his throat and chest that was hinted at through the openness of his shirt.

_Gods, please keep my wits. Please let me keep sane. Not now. Now after all this._

“What is your name?” He suddenly asked out of the blue, his tone soft and soothing, and looking into his eyes you could see that something within him changed.

“M-My name?” You asked. After all this and yet that’s what he wanted to know next? And so you told him your name, and as your title left your lips you once again noticed a change in his stare, as if you declaring that you had a name was further proof that you were human. Biting your lip and avoiding his gaze again, your toes began to squirm as you clasped your claws to keep yourself focused. “I…and I guess that I’d like to ask the same of you. Since, well, you know, you broke into my home after all.”

An unexpected chuckle left his lips, the sound making your chest flutter with a sudden joy that you couldn’t quite explain. “Well, for being one of your… ‘kind’,” he began carefully, taking care not to make any further judgments of you, “I do have to say that you are rather dreadful at covering your tracks. I’d hardly call it breaking in as more as welcoming myself inside.” Hell, of all things he was teasing you now, but by the look in his eyes you could tell that his words were not meant to be spiteful. “But my name?” He continued, shifting upon his feet as if feeling divulging such would endanger him. “Would you really care to know that much?”

You frowned. “I think that’s a little unfair, don’t you think?” You stated as you looked up at him. “I know my life ‘depends upon proving myself’, but I don’t like the notion that I’m sharing all my secrets and you’re not going to tell me a thing about you. You did almost kill me after all. At least give me your name.”

The man still had his daggers within his hands, and holding up his hands you watched within a flash as the weapons disappeared in crystal light. Your eyes widened at such a spectacle, and with your nostrils flaring at his scent wafting into your nose as he moved your arms, you combatted your raging curiosity now, having suddenly a slight hint of an idea of who he could be.

You had heard of such magical ability before. For living in the Crown City where the Crystal was stationed and emitted its enchantment, there was only a few such who could have cast about such augury.

And this man now smiled, ever so slightly and almost indistinct from the harshness of the rest of his face, nevertheless he smiled. “I suppose that would only be fair enough,” he began as he placed his hands upon his lithe hips. “Although I must say that-“

“My life depends upon it if I tell anyone?” You cut in playfully now and your skin tingling with a feeling you couldn’t describe.

He chuckled again, and the blissful woman deep in your dead heart melted over such a sound. “Surely not, unless you give me reason to take back my word.” He titled his head to look at you again, as if considering he had room to trust you. “I am Ignis Scientia.”

It took your cloudy brain a moment to process what he said, but surely enough as you stared up into his eyes you felt your eyes go wide as you made a sudden recollection. “Astrals,” you murmured, feeling yourself tremble. “I…I read about you. All those years ago in the newspapers whenever royal affairs were reported. I’ve seen your name before. You’re...the advisor to our king…King Noctis…” Had you reason to truly breath, you would be gasping for air. And yet, the human side of you reacted with surprise as you felt your chest rise and fall. “Astrals, the hand of the king…the tactician…what…then what in Eos are you doing hunting now?”

The royal advisor’s stance slackened as if the cat was out of the bag. “What else do you surely expect one to do in such an age as this?” He said simply as he looked down upon you. “There is only so much that myself, the Crownsguard, and the Glaives can do until our king returns. We are keeping all affairs in order as best as we can, but surely when all is said and done, it is the protection of the people that is needed most as the daemons plague their very livelihood. Surely I could not stand idle and allow such atrocities to happen.” And he paused as he took a step closer to you, and his sudden advancement made you recoil slightly out of fear. Seeing your reaction, your red eyes wide as you looked up him, he sighed. “I…did not mean for that to sound so belligerent and offensive before,” he added. “I…as you know, these five years have been rather trying times on us all. I am only taking the necessary precautions to ensure that all grounds are covered. And in the case of this daemon that we have yet to track down, I am at the end of my rope with my patience in feeling like I am not doing my best to solve the matter.” And he paused again, but this time he slowly extended his hand towards your direction. “I…I must apologize to you, most surely.”

Your eyes quickly darted down to his hand as you shifted anxiously on your feet. “Apologize? For what?” You asked, although you felt you should very much know the answer.

“For being so brash with such accusations of you. Whatever ailment it is that you suffer through, regardless, it was wrong of me to say such things like I did back there just moments ago.”

You were speechless. Had this man gone mad all of a sudden? Regardless of you “proving” your innocence, there was still one thing that was more than certain: despite your fealty to never harm a human in your life for as long as you retained that one shred of humanity within your soul, you were still dangerous. You were still a daemon. You still fed upon the blood of another being to survive and you possessed the heightened senses and strength that far superseded that of an average human being.

And so it was now that as you instinctually grabbed a hold of his hand in which he presented to you and felt the warmth of his fingers through the leather of his glove did you find yourself in a sudden mode of panic.

It was all suddenly too much, a certain fire that had dwindled within your life now suddenly rekindled. The parting of his lips that exuded a soft breath and the heat that emanated from his towering and toned frame. His scent. Gods, that delicious scent that was unlike anything else you had ever experienced in your life that made your blood boil but feel just like the home you wished you could go back to. Inhaling in with cold lungs you had never tasted anything in your mouth so wonderful as his smell.

But it was worst of all the sound of his heart pattering within his broad chest that reverberated in your ears and the pulsating of the vein in his exposed neck that was driving you to a point of destruction.

There was something you had once read years ago when you first read about daemons, something which you presumed to merely be a pretty wives’ tale or romantic myth. Despite the daemons succumbing to the loss of their humanity, there was a reason they always traveled in packs. It was the need for companionship. The need for bonding with a like being at the loss of a soul that the creature once possessed. A desire for a mate to spend the rest of a damned eternity with.

What was it you were feeling right now over this complete stranger? What was it in your Scourged heart that was causing you to tremble erratically like you had never in your life that only in this small stand-still moment in time made you feel human once again? As you looked up into the eyes of Ignis Scientia, finding yourself at a loss for all comprehension of existence, gods was it more apparent than ever: you had imprinted on him and wanted this man and him only to be that mate that would give you the solace in your sorrow.

_Oh gods…what is happening to me? Why am I feeling this way?_

You would have sworn you were blushing as your eyes flickered to his throat for a second more, and the sputtering of his heart in his chest was louder than ever.

“You…you still shouldn’t trust me, you know,” you hastily blurted out, and yet, as you looked up into his face you could see a distinct sense of compassion in his eyes that continued to catch you off guard. “In fact, I-I’m surprised you are still here. Or even myself for the matter. I would think a royal advisor would want to take out any threats that would impose harm upon the populace.”

“I can assure you that my intuition now tells me I have all the reason to find good faith in you,” he murmured softly, and yet his heart continued to throb madly in his chest.

No, you couldn’t ignore that. Something was going on within his head too, and you couldn’t just sit here and wonder what. “I-Ignis, are you…are you frightened of me?”

“No. I have no reason to be.”

_Gods…_

He suddenly wasn’t acting like the strategic tactician you read and heard so much about. Was he going mad?

“I…I can hear your heartbeat. Y-You’re afraid of me. You should leave before something happens. I-I’m a daemon after all and-“

“You’re in need,” he uttered quietly.

Your mouth was now hanging open as you looked up into his face to see that his cheeks were flushed. Despite this man being so completely and utterly composed this whole time as any man of honor and high class could possess, something in him was changing, something that made your own cold blood set ablaze.

“W-What do you mean?” You whispered, feeling flustered over his meaning. “H-How am I in need?”

“I think you know what I mean, Y/N,” he said smoothly, uttering your name with sympathy, and his expression became serious as he took another step closer to you. “Do you truly believe that I am going to leave these quarters and leave you in such distress over your predicament? Do you think that would be an acceptable decision upon my part?”

Astrals, your mind was starting to spiral and his scent was becoming all too irresistible as it was YOU who felt was being cornered like prey. What the hell was he thinking? “I-Ignis, what…what are you saying to me? Just listen to yourself and consider what you are saying!”

“Your health shall not sustain itself very long at the rate in which you consume your intended nourishment…”

_…what?_

_Oh…oh no…dear gods…_

The royal advisor who began to tremble slightly as he slowly removed his frames from his face, revealing the beautiful structure of his countenance to you in its entirety. He sat his visors down upon the nearby coffee table and tilted his head to study you. Looking you deeply in the eyes, you watched as his Adam’s apple shifted in his throat as he swallowed.

“As proven with any creature, daemonic or not, one cannot simply sustain themselves on that which is not meant for them. You’re…you’re suffering is only further brought about by that which you deny yourself of.”

Another thing that you had learned about your species of daemon as declared in the witness accounts of those who survived the attacks: the victims succumbed to the attacker and had admitted to a sense of loss of control in their actions and behaviors, as if a puppeteer dangled their bodies helplessly upon fragile strands of a marionette. Whatever miasmal aura your breed perpetuated, you had yet to understand yourself, as your experiences with humans for extended periods of time had been far and in-between or were more so witnessed by hiding in the shadows. But now, as this man stood before you with his pupils dilated and his gazed fixated upon you with intense interest, you felt your dead heart almost reanimate at the fear of what you were causing him to do or say without him even realizing it.

_Oh gods…oh no…._

“I-Ignis, y-you can’t be serious!” You pleaded with him as you backed away from him, and yet with your stomach twisting and turning into knots, it was all but now you realized just how god damn hungry you were, him interrupting your dining upon the blood in the fridge. “I know from all I’ve read about you that you would never make a decision like this. This is just suicide you are asking for! And y-you’re asking me to go against what I’ve been trying to not do all this time! What if I hurt you?! What if I go too far just like the other of my kind? I j-just can’t or I’ll-“

“Please. I trust you.”

Shit.

“L-Listen to yourself! You-“

“Please. Don’t let yourself suffer on my behalf.”

This stranger of a man suddenly reached out and pulled your towards him into his chest, and Astrals did the universe suddenly go mad as your tiny frame made contact with his blazingly hot body. Instantly you were enveloped in the aroma of cologne and coffee and the delicious smell of his blood that ran through his veins, and with your pupils darkening and a tear streaming down your face you soon lost control of your movements as you maneuvered this gorgeous man onto the couch. You fell upon him, your tiny little body straddling his hips and your claws clutching at the side of his face, your thumbs brushing over his cheekbones as you held back the métier that you burned through your blood. You were trembling as your skin prickled hot and your pupils blew out, and with parted lips and to your own reluctance, the little protuberances of your fangs slowly extended for the purposes of feeding.

And yet all the while, there sat the man you had only just met and yet declared to own and protect and have by your side as your mate with his hands clutching tightly at your waist and pulling you tightly to his frame.

“P-Please, don’t make me do this,” you whimpered as your face rested against his, and gods, despite how starving you were, heat shot down to your core at the very intimacy at the notion that this man was suddenly so willing to give up his blood to you. “L-Listen to yourself, Ignis. T-Tell me to stop and I’ll run from here. Please. Tell me to-“

“N-No,” he begged as he brushed his nose against yours, his hands suddenly digging into your waist, and the pressure of his fingertips caused you whimper with delight. “I-I w-want to help you and this is how I’ll do so. Let me give this to you.”

“Y-You can’t!” You sobbed, your mouth slowly creeping more closely to this neck where his vein pulsated madly. “T-This isn’t you saying this. You’d never say this. Your king…OUR king wouldn’t want you doing this. I don’t want to hurt you-“

But it wasn’t a retort of words that stopped you from speaking but the feel of Ignis’s hand leaving your waist for a second to cup your chin, and with his own pupils blown and his eyes hazy like mist, he pulled your face to his and brought his lips crashing against his own.

There were no words. No words in your human nor daemon existence that could describe the fire that blazed through your soulless being as he kissed you like no one else ever could. You were trembling and shaking and whimpering as you kissed him back and it was all you could do to refrain from sinking your teeth into his lip as you steadied yourself upon his lap. And yet he held you in place, and despite you being by nature the more powerful of the two species, his grasp upon you firm and possessive gave you no ground to move away from him as his lips locked with yours.

Gods, thank goodness you didn’t really need to worry too much about breathing, but it was as his nose and lips brushed against yours in the most oddly intimate of ways like he trusted you with his life, it wasn’t just his smell that was making you lose control of all wit but a now pressure that was pressing up between your suddenly drenched heat.

Your eyes widened as he pulled away from your lips, and he was suddenly a man lost of all control as he clutched upon the back of your head with his broad hand. “P-Please,” he begged, so very unlike the man that had intruded upon this room. Angling his head back slightly while he grasped at your hair, it was as your eyes made contact with the vein that pulsed for you that made you succumb to the daemon within.

And so, with tears streaming down your face and your nostrils flaring with the hunger you couldn’t withstand anymore, you pulled back your lips, lowered your face to his neck, and plunged your fangs into his tender flesh.

Euphoria. That was the only word to describe all notion of existence as the warmth of his blood began to gush into your mouth, and with eyes wide and flickering and your frame grinding on his lap, you clutched on possessively to the back of his head as you lost yourself to the most exquisite taste you had ever savored in both human and daemonic life. You were whimpering, tears soaking your cheeks as you experienced nothing of the like ever before, and it was to think with such shame that despite all this time denying yourself the base needs of your species, you could not have thought of a better way to relish such with this precious beautiful man that situated himself before you. You sucked hungrily, his blood staining your lips and mouth as you writhed over him, and with hoarse and painful moans tumbling out of his mouth as he clutched onto you tightly, you felt yourself cry out in response as his hips jutted upward against your heat, him now suddenly a man lost to his own muddled passions.

 _Stop…Please don’t hurt him,_ you begged with yourself as you quivered in his lap, your eyes shut tightly in the shame of the realization of what you were doing to him.

 _But he asked me to. He begged me to,_ you argued with yourself as the daemon within you pestered you to continue your feast.

_No. I have to stop. I can’t hurt him. I can’t…_

And you would never know what it was about him that made you feel like he needed to be protected and savored at all costs.

With a sob leaving your lips and with all the power that a woman in her sorrow and loneliness could possess, you pulled back from his throat and hid your face in shame in his neck, biting your lip and shutting your eyes in the process. But before you could succumb to said shame, once more your face was pulled upward with a strong hand on your chin and you were met with the gaze of the most beautiful eyes you would ever see in your life.

You knew that you were a mess. A disgusting, repulsive, inhuman mess as the remnants of his blood dribbled down the corner of your lips. Gods, did you want to hide such shame and yet with him holding your face fast within his hand, he let go of your waist for just a second to wipe away that which brought you disgrace. You could have cried with joy alone at such a gesture, finding yourself utterly confounded to such a sentiment, but before you could open your mouth to question his actions his lips were upon yours once again, this time, his kisses more passionate tenfold as his hands trailed back down to your waist and cupped your buttocks. Him squeezing at the flesh through your pants, you yelped out, and the lustful daemon in you realized only now how entirely soaked you were through your garments. Whimpering loudly at the friction of his clothed groin against yours, you were squirming madly as your bloodlust coursed through you, you unable to fully process what on earth in this mad world was transpiring in the privacy of your safe haven.

It was after several more heated kisses were shared that Ignis pulled his lips away from yours. His own lips covered in his own blood as he pressed his forehead to yours, his skin drenched in a hot perspiration, he uttered the words that would surely send you to your doom.

“Let me have you now. Please,” he begged, and your eyes broadened and you whined at the sudden implication of what he was asking you. Curse you and the daemonic aura that you possessed to drive this man to utter such lustful pleadings, and all logic within you failed to reason with the woman and fiend who sought comfort in this lonely, frightening world.

“I-Ignis,” you mewled, your panties and pants completely soaked through and your own scent clouding the senses of the man whose lap you submitted yourself to. This is what you wanted. Companionship. And gods, did you want this man more than any drop of blood that you would ever consume as you suddenly lost control to the daemonic instincts that possessed you.

He murmured your name in return as his undeniably strong arms helped lift you to the right height where you were able to balance enough to yank of your pants that had glued themselves to your legs. The tactician inhaled sharply at the exposure of your soft legs, your skin pale like marble and void of all flushing yet ever so alluring. He quickly tugged his gloves off and tossed them to the floor, his hands instantly falling upon your thighs to touch every inch of the soft cold flesh, and you moaned gently at the feel of his battle-hardened hands trailing slowly down the planes of your flesh. He groaned in response to your reaction, him biting his lower lip as he refrained himself for but a moment longer. Kissing you fervently once again, this time with more affection with the stroke of his lips, his mouth only parted with yours for just a second to unbuckle his belt, unzip his pants, and unsheathe what had been causing you such torture all this time.

Daemon or not, Astrals, you were not prepared for the beast which he now challenged you with.

Your fangs extended once again as his eyes locked to yours once more like a man lost in all his desires, and with deft fingers he pulled aside the fabric of your panties that were drenched and pasted to the entrance of your heat. Whimpering loudly and trembling at the sudden exposure to the air, you shifted on your lap to lift yourself upwards, and with one hand wrapping around the base of his shaft and him pressing the tip of his length to the entrance to your heat, Ignis grasped onto your waist with the other hand and slowly lowered you down to the hilt.

_Six, let this be the remainder of my eternity. Let this be my forgiveness for what I’ve become._

You were sobbing and screaming and moaning to the top of your lungs, your face buried in his neck as he began to thrust upwards into you at an almost inhuman force. With each thrust he jolted you upright, and with his surprising strength it was YOU who had to clutch onto dear life to steady yourself as he pounded into your heat like a man lost to his passions. With his arms snaked around your lower back and his hands clutching at the fabric of your shirt, he too made his pleasure be verbalized, as with your fangs gently grazing his flesh, you sunk your teeth into his neck again, this time more carefully with control. Your cries of ecstasy were muffled with each of his thrusts, him now growling like a mad man at the feel of your soaking passage squeezing his girth. With his blood filling your mouth and sending you into another euphoric frenzy, it was with your jubilation to be one with this man that caused you to lift your head and press your forehead to his, you now clutching onto his face for support as he slammed into you from beneath.

What was this feeling? This sensation that extended beyond the physical but within the heart that you didn’t think was possible between man and daemon?

Ignis’s thrusts suddenly became more uneven and sporadic and his breathing more ragged and as his gaze bore into yours, and gritting his teeth he tried to ground himself as your name tore up through his throat. Feeling his length swell inside of you, it was with this telltale sign that you knew he was moments away from reaching his peak.

“I-Ignis…” you whined, holding onto him for dear life as tears of joy, deprivation, lust, and ecstasy streamed down your face, and with every nerve in your body on fire it was with your own tell-tale signs of your walls starting to clench around his length did you realize that you were moments close to being gone. “I-Ignis…I’m…I’m…”

To your greatest astonishment off all, just as you were mere seconds from hitting your climax, Ignis gently nudged your face upwards with his nose to your chin, pressed his mouth to the base of your throat, and bit down.

You were gone. Beyond gone and beyond the Astral realm as your eyes went wide and your nostrils flared at the feeling of his teeth sinking into your flesh, not enough to break the skin but certainly enough force to leave a mark. A loud animalistic mewl tore up through Ignis’s throat as with a few solitary sputters of his hips his hot seed shot forth into your depths, the sensation causing you to scream out his name as you too hit your climax. And all the while as each other’s names tumbled out of one another’s mouth, you clutched onto one another for dear life, this unholy juncture of man and daemon coming to fruition as you succumbed to the joining of your bodies, his seed spilling deeply into your core as your passage tugged and pulsated around his length in hopes to suck up every drop. He grasped upon you tightly, seeming to not let you go for a single second, and with the last spurt of his seed in your depths and your head falling to his shoulder, your climaxes subsided. With bodies mingled with tears, blood, and sweat and with the leveling out of heaving chests, you rested your claws upon his shoulders and his hands placed themselves upon your back. Through the comfort of this most unexpected embrace did you find yourself grasp onto the hand of a single shred of humanity deep within your being as sleep invited you in with open arms once more…

********************

_What is this feeling? Why do I feel so…calm? At ease?_

You groaned as your eyelids slowly fluttered open to greet the sounds of a rare, stray bird that flew outside somewhere within the streets of Insomnia. What time was it if the avians were already singing their songs? With a stretch of your legs, you winced slightly, a dull ache within your thighs and belly causing you to grit your teeth. But nevertheless, you shifted upon the surface in which you lay, and with your rather hazy eyes coming into quick focus, it was as you stared up at the ceiling of the living area that caused you to quickly sit upright into a seated position.

Silent. The room was completely silent, save for that little song bird outside somewhere, singing its song of hope in what little time it had before darkness descended once more.

Silent. Entirely too silent, but it was with the crippling loneliness and the aroma of blood, sweat, and the seed of the man that you fed upon that made you all too quickly recall what had transpired within these walls last night.

“Oh…oh gods…” You whispered as you slowly brought your hands up to your face to steady yourself, and with the scent of blood filling your nostrils, the royal advisor’s life force staining your palms, it was all you could do to refrain from sobbing at the realization of what you had done to the man.

“Oh Ignis…Ignis…” You whimpered as tears streamed down your face, and the thought of what you had done, despite feeling utterly satisfied from your feeding made your stomach lurch with shame. How could you do such a thing? How could you have fallen from your principles and have given in to hurting someone so beautiful? How could you have allowed him to accept such a burden and submit himself to such pain?

What a monster you were. A god damn monster. And at this rate, you would be no better than that killer.

And so you wept, realizing that this man had fled. The man you proved yourself to that you were nothing but good, and now that trust was gone forever.

For all you knew, he’d be back tonight to put you to your end.

But it was as your hands fell from your face and onto your lap that you noticed something strange in this all, something so oddly and wonderfully strange that made your eyes broaden and the cold dead chamber of your heart perhaps beat just a little within your chest. Draped over your lap and legs and hiding the exposure of your bare flesh was a blanket, one that had been clearly stowed away in a small linen closet near the bathroom.

A blanket that could only have gotten there one way.

And there upon the floor by the couch, neatly folded to perfection were your pants that had been torn away from your legs so your body could mate like it had desperately so desired.

You brought your hand up to your mouth once again, but this time not to cry from sadness and shame. Such gestures were monumental beyond compare, and with trembling legs and shaking hands and quivering lips, you realized at this moment of solitude that maybe, just maybe, a certain someone didn’t find you to be the daemon that you thought you were.


	2. The Fastening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will keep my opening notes to this chapter very brief: All I can say is that regardless of how many incarnations of Ignis exist and no matter how many I myself write, I feel that this man never fails to amaze me and take my breath away with how caring and self-sacrificial he is to those he cares about and swears to protect. This part two of "Nightcall" is no exception to those very principles in which he upholds himself.
> 
> How will our Reader bear with her guilt for what she has done to the royal advisor? How will she take to what she is about to find out? You'll just have to see for yourself.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this part two, and as always, comments are always appreciated!!!! ^_^
> 
> *You can find me on Tumblr as missyunie! ^_^

_Some miracle man must have shot me_

_While I wake. I never ran fast enough_

_Oh my mistakes_

_Would you really want me_

_In the light of day, that very same man_

_Shot flaws right through my face_

 

_Hmmm, I will dream of you_

_Hmmm, you’ll dream of me too_

_Hmmm, your arms curled round my waist_

_Hmmm, there would be no better place_

_\- London Grammar – “Interlude (Live)”_

 Several weeks had passed and yet the endless reports of the incessant daemon attacks continued to flood the newsstands. More lives taken, more innocent lives landed in the hospital and completely unaware of what charm befell them that prevented them recalling how they fell victim to whatever it was that hunted them in the night.

_Is this night truly descending so quickly before these people can find their safe havens? Gods, just let these people be smart. Let them be safe. I can’t bear to hear this news anymore…_

You were frustrated beyond compare. Becoming more adamant than ever yourself to find the culprit at hand, your own nightly patrols left you without answers, the Ariadnes and Aramushas and Galvanades and Nagarinis and the like the usual forms of ‘life’ you witness as you scoured towers and buildings for your inspections. No matter how many times you examined the areas in which the attacks occurred, not a shred of evidence was left behind, save for the blood of the victim who had fallen here.

_Where can this monster be? Why are the hunters so unsuccessful like they never have been before?_

These questions continued to plague your mind repeatedly with each passing day and night as you lay upon your bed with your eyes gazing up at the ceiling in the dark. Even though you technically did not need sleep, strangely enough you felt you needed to rest your weary eyes during the nightime hours, and more and more you found yourself restless as your thoughts mulled over in your head. It wasn’t just the frustration over not knowing how to stop the attacks that left you paranoid and awake, but something more ceaseless to the mind that began to drive you to a madness that extended upon mere bloodlust.

And it wasn’t just your hunger that had slightly been satiated. It was oh so much more than that.

Those weeks had passed without a single word or sighting from the royal advisor, save for the faint lingering of his scent found at the sights of the attacks in which he surely observed and studied himself in his own patrols. As the endless nights passed you had come to swear deep within your heart that the man had merely become a figment of your fancy, a relentless imagination nonetheless that refused to let you forget those piercing green eyes and that whispery hair and the broad hands that clutched onto you while you savored his blood and climaxed upon his lap. Those nights you spent alone and awake with him on your mind left you spent in your tears, and even worse so, in your moments when you fed and hungrily slurped down the bags of your recent fix of Arba and Anak blood that you drank merely out of instinct, no matter how much you consumed, no matter how much you savored, nothing could get the thought of the taste of him out of your mind.

It was now as another day came and gone and the night sky cast its illuminated moon overhead, rainclouds threatening to burst forth at any moment that you made your way back to your den with tonight’s harvesting, your duffle bag a little less heavy this time. For ever since that fateful encounter, your body needle a little less to survive, and it was all you could do to let your curiosities get the best of you as you wondered why.

_You need to stop this_ , you thought helplessly to yourself as your claws dug into the walls you clambered and now hung upon the ledge of your windowsill, your fingers fumbling with the latch that fastened the window shut. _He’s gone. He’s not coming back. Just get a hold of yourself and move on, otherwise you are going to drag yourself into the pits of madness._

The window clicked and you hastily yanked it upwards, sliding your body through the windowsill with ease and quickly shutting and locking it behind you. You sighed, the sudden exhaustion of your thoughts weighing on your mind getting the best to you, and inhaling deeply and turning to unzip your duffle bag you dreaded the meal in which you were about to consume.

But by breathing in, immediately your nostrils flared and your eyes widened, because there was a scent in your apartment that was surely not there hours ago.

Your fangs began to elongate, every nerve and fiber in your body pulsated, and the muscles in your chest clenched in response. Feeling your now sharpened claws slacken at your sides and your lips part with complete and utter disbelief, it was the sight of who stood across the room that made you question if you were experiencing a delusional pang of hunger.

“…Ignis?” You croaked, your voice barely above a whisper.

Yes, surely within the dimness of the room, there he stood against the wall, his arms folded over his chest as he gazed upon you attentively.

“Y/N….” He murmured, taking one solitary step closer into the main space of the room, and by gods did the quarters suddenly feel significantly smaller. “You know you are not very good at this, you know?”

There was a hint of sass in his tone, but with your perplexity and his sudden overwhelming presence invading your personal space, your brain malfunctioned in attempt to comprehend his words.

“B-Bad? Bad at what?” You asked, swallowing hard as you tried to keep your senses about you, the smell of his cologne, coffee, and the pumping of his blood in his veins sending you into overdrive.

“That,” he simply said, motioning his hand towards the window behind you. “Two nights successively now that I’ve been able to pass through there with ease. You might perhaps want to get your locks checked, that is if you do indeed value your safety.”

You could only gape at him as he took a step closer into the room, and sensing your sudden apprehensiveness to his approach in the dark, he took a few strides to his right and snapped on the lamp, and immediately a warm glow illuminated the room. Unlike your last encounter in which the man caught you off guard, this time you were able to fully observe Ignis in his entirety without the pressure of death lingering on your mind. Once again his hair was slicked back into a pompadour and you would assume that this was his preferred method of styling his hair. His visors glinted mischievously in the lamp light and his legs were parted slightly to showcase the long lean rippling muscles of his thighs under dark washed jeans. Upon his hands once again were his leather gloves in which he had disregarded before, and instantly you recalled the way in which they trailed over the creamy cold flesh of your thighs. A black leather jacket covered a dark grey v-neck that clung to his toned torso, and refraining from moaning your eyes quickly darted to the skull pendant that dangled at his clavicle and to the taut muscles of his neck that displayed for you fully your previous feasting ground.

_Astrals, damn me to hell. Is he here on a suicide mission?_

Your brain failed to process all thoughts that now pervaded you, and with your vision spinning as you tried to gain self-control, you focused on the sudden curious issue at hand as he stood there watching you. You could only ponder just how the hell he managed to snake his way into your quarters these last two times, but seeing a small knapsack of his own on the floor, you quickly conjectured that the contents carried within included his hunter essentials. But somehow finding an odd sense of humor in all of this, you swallowed hard again as you found your next words.

“Don’t you think that’s a little bit disturbing, sneaking in to people’s homes like that?” You retorted, and your tone betrayed you as your syllables slipped out of your mouth a little bit higher pitched than you had wished.

Ignis hummed and his hips shifted, the sight alone enough to make you want to yank at the windows and jump out in fear of what you would do to him. But regardless, he titled his head to look at you, his eyes narrowing for a second as he questioned your words. “I suppose your observation is correct, although can you blame me, given the nature of my expeditions? One must remain thorough in all investigations at hand, after all, and to safeguard all areas as such is key ensuring the safety of others…”

You swallowed hard as he gazed upon you with interest, and shifting anxiously upon your two feet, you couldn’t help but feel nervous over the implication of his words. Was he…was he concerned about you? Was he here to actually see _you_ to see if you were ok?

A deafening silence began to saturate the room, save for the resounding of Ignis’s blood coursing through his veins and his blood pumping in his chest. Finding his eyes locked to yours for far too long past a level of comfort that was keeping you sane, you quickly cast your eyes to the ground in hopes that your eyes would not betray all that was perpetuated in your cold, dead heart at this moment.

“You…you s-shouldn’t be here,” you murmured, as you turned away from him and bit your lip, and feeling your body start to tremble, every fiber and nerve within your body burned as his delicious scent invaded your nostrils.

He was silent for a moment as a sigh escaped his lips. “I…I apologize for my intrusion,” he replied genuinely, and hiding your face from his gaze you heard him take a step closer in your direction. “Perhaps you are correct in calling such choice of mine as rude. I shall leave if you wish me to.”

“T-That’s not what I meant!” You said hastily, your eyes looking up to his for just a split second. His gaze was heavily fixated on you as if studying your every word, and Astrals if you could blush right now you would. “I just mean…you shouldn’t be here for…for reasons on my end. I just don’t think that for your sake it’s safe for you to be around me…”

“And why is that?” He murmured quietly. “Give me a sound reason as to what is at stake for me…”

Was he being _serious_? Had he forgotten all that had transpired within these walls just weeks prior? You hid your face fully now, and bracing your hands upon the windowsill for support, tears began to trickle down your cheeks. You had all but tried to forget your humiliation and shame at such disgraceful behavior against this man that truly didn’t deserve it. This beautiful man whom you succumbed to for your own desires and personal needs. This man who had now at this moment appeared to be all but oblivious to the daemonic aura you emitted that possessed him to give himself away to feed your hunger

But gods did you want ever so much to have your arms wrapped around his waist as you kissed him and kept him safe from the daemons that beleaguered the world.

You could barely keep yourself stable as you felt the tears gush down your face, and nipping at your lower lip, you fought heavily to combat the lust that now burned through your blood as the scent of his presence clouded your senses and began to drive you mad.

“I…I think you know why,” you whispered. “You know what I am, Ignis. You know what I’ve done, and you know what I am capable of.”

You were crying now, your tears silent in the stillness of the night, but it was hearing another step of the tactician from behind you that caused your frame to further tremble.

Ignis was quiet for a moment, but hearing him breath in deeply, it was as though he was choosing his next words carefully. “I am very much aware of your…. ‘capabilities’, and what you can do. And yet, I fail to see your reasoning as to why this could cause me concern.”

You gasped for breath that failed to fill your lungs, and with your lower lip quivering you could hardly believe what you were hearing. With your claws digging into the windowsill a burning sensation coursed down your spine, your fangs pricking your inner lips as you failed tremendously to hold back your tears. And yet, you still couldn’t look his way, your apprehension accumulating as by the sound of the fluttering of his heart in your chest, you could only wonder if at this very moment your miasmal aura was compelling him to say such ludicrous things.

“Ignis, please, listen to yourself!” You blubbered, your face contorted into ugly tears as you stared out into the Insomnia streets down below through the foggy window. In this instant the clouds broke through, the skies emitting their own tears as rain softly began to patter onto the streets below. “P-Please, just r-run away now and go and-“

“Please, look at me.”

You choked at the softness of his words, and with your chest heaving you slowly turned your gaze to look at him. His brows were drawn together in concern, a distraught frown spread across his beautifully sculpted lips, but even more so it was the shimmer in his eyes that made you lose the breath you didn’t even need. He studied you carefully, suddenly seeming helpless to your distress.

“May I…may I approach you?” He asked you softly.

You could only stare at him with your lips parted and your nerves burning like fire as he gazed at you, and it was all you could do to calm yourself at the sudden quickening of his heartbeat while he waited for your consent. Your mind was screaming at you to say no, screaming at you to run away before you would lay a finger on him and cause him potential harm, and yet, something, _something_ was telling you that you simply couldn’t say no.

“Y-Yes,” you whispered.

Ignis inhaled sharply, the strain in his eyes finally softening as he began to approach you with careful steps. Each step of his weighty boots resounded heavily within your head, and with the chorus of rain outside and the overwhelming smell of his masculine musk and blood pumping through his veins you would have sworn you were to be driven to lunacy. And yet, with his frame now mere feet from yours, towering over you as you looked up into his emerald eyes, you could only question how you were able to restrain yourself in the sudden heat of the moment as you found yourself backed up to the windowsill behind you.

“Is…is this ok?” He asked you finally as he stood an arm’s length away from you, and feeling your throat constrict tightly, you found it virtually impossible to pull your gaze away from him.

“Y-Yes,” you squeaked as you continued to tremble. _Gods, please don’t let me break. Please let me restrain myself. Please-_

“I would like to try something, if that is ok with you,” Ignis said, and with his heart sputtering in his chest, you questioned whether or not he realized how afraid he was to be so close to you.

Yet finding his softness of tone irresistible, you nodded slowly. With Ignis taking a deep breath, he slowly lifted his hand and reached out to your direction. Your eyes widened and your nostrils flared, you not anticipating his sudden gesture and shutting your eyes in fear of what he was about to do.

Quickly, you gasped suddenly at the feel of his warm leathered-hand cupping the side of your face as his thumb caressed your cheek to brush away your sodden tears. _Gods_ , did the warmth of his hand make your spine burn with fire, and without even realizing what you were doing you reached up with your claws to grasp gently at his hand to hold it to your face; you began to nuzzle your cheeks against his palm, relishing in such contact and purring like a pleasured Coeurl as he touched you.

You heard him inhale sharply, and with your eyes snapping open you realized how utterly inappropriate your affectionate gesture might seem, but as your eyes looked up into his own you could only see the upmost concern and curiosity burn within his gaze.

You didn’t want him to take his hand away. Gods, did the warmth feel so good, and suddenly you recalled the heat that emanated from his frame as you had sat upon his lap and fed upon him and mated with him. But biting your lip you started to tremble again at his proximity, and you reluctantly lowered his hand from your face and cast your eyes to the floor, trying remain calm in his presence.

“Y/N, please look up at me,” he murmured softly once more, and finding it impossible to not oblige, you did so. Why was he looking at you in such a way? Was he once more lost to the aura that you cast forth? “It’s alright, Y/N. You have nothing to be afraid of.”

A soft laugh suddenly escaped your lips. “Me? A-Afraid?” You replied, your tone betraying you once again, and gods surely you were terrified of what you were going to do at any moment as the heat radiating from his body seeped into your cold, dead flesh. “I-I’m not afraid. I think it should be the other way around.”

You watched some of the tension leave Ignis’s shoulders as his heart continued to pound within his chest, but nevertheless a chuckle of his own fell from his lips. “We’ve already been through this, Y/N. I have no cause for concern to be here right now. And I can assure you that I am very much aware of what’s present in this conversation at the moment. Trust me when I say this.”

You stopped at this. Was he really not affected by your aura? Was he able to remain in control of himself, unlike last time when he succumbed to your daemonic energy and let you be his feeding ground? You fought back another tear, and watching him shift upon his feet with his hips swaying to the side, you lost all sense of breath as you finally had the courage to ask him what you had been wondering since the moment you arrived home this very night.

“Ignis, why are you here?” You asked him softly, your words barely above a whisper. And truth be told, this was a complete mystery to you. For what ever purpose in the stillness of this rainy evening did he ever make the choice to come to your quarters, knowing very much what had transpired here his last visit?

For a second he seemed hurt by your words, and reaching out to you once again, he stopped himself, his hand lingering in the air for a few moments before reluctantly bringing it back down to his side. “I…I was concerned about you,” he began slowly. “I had left rather hastily upon my last visit, and realizing how rather discourteous it was of me to do so without a word or heed of acknowledgment of farewell to you, I realized the error of my behavior. And with how preoccupied I have been as of late trying to track down the culprit of these ghastly attacks while continuing my research towards solving the mysteries of the Scourge, I…I felt the need that I was indeed overdue to seek you out for clemency on my behalf.”

You were speechless, and finding your jaw slacken in the most unattractive of manners, you quickly swallowed and began to play with your claws. _He was worried about me? He was concerned for me?_ This meant that he clearly had been thinking about you all this time, and surely this was not something you were expecting to hear in the least.

Trying to remain calm and gathering your words, you cast your eyes to the floor in shyness. “Y-You don’t have to worry about me, you know…” You replied timidly. “You know that I can take care of myself. I might be ‘bad’ at what I do, but I still have managed to handle my own for a while now…”

You could have laughed at yourself at how big of a lie that really was.

“Nonetheless,” he replied, a slight smile forming on his lips, “what kind of man would I be to leave in such a state, especially knowing what lurks outside these quarters that could cause harm to you? As a retainer of the Crown and one who has sworn to follow through the standards of Hunters HQ, I surely couldn’t leave a citizen without protection.”

You throat constricted once again. To someone else these words may have been simple, but to you there was a vastness behind their meaning that almost brought you to tears again. After all you had done to him the last encounter, after using him for your own bodily needs and pleasures and means to survive, he didn’t see you like the monster that you envisioned yourself as.

“Ignis…I…I don’t know what to say,” you murmured, playing with your fingers as you kept your senses about you. But with your lashes fluttering up to look him in the eyes, your chest clenching with that apparent sense of need to protect and give affections to this beautiful man that was for one night your mate, you still had millions of questions that you sought answer for. “Ignis…I…I don’t understand. You know what I am. You know what happened between us. And yet you are here. Please. I want to know why.”

Ignis was silent for a moment, but gesturing his hand over towards your couch, you nodded to him and followed him over where you both finally situated yourselves side by side. You couldn’t look at him again, feeling flushed and embarrassed, but even more so, you were anxious over what exactly he was being so elusive about.

“I…I was worried about,” he repeated, and looking at him he had his feet planted apart upon the floor and his hands were clasped together firmly as though doing such helped ground his thoughts. “I had felt a sense of guilt for how I treated you upon your entrance here in our first meeting, treating you like you were nothing, although I hope you cannot blame me for initially believing you were what I was hunting. Your nightly patterns of behavior were remarkably similar to the reports we have been receiving. I had to seek you out for my own answers. But when I truly had the chance to see you for what you were, I…I was moved. I felt a sense of guilt for what I had done. I felt a sense of shame for being wrong in judgement, considering I’ve had years and years of experience in this field, as both an informal member of the Hunters HQ and a solider to the Crown. And even more so,” he paused, looking at you deeply and now gesturing around the room with his hands, “seeing you resort to this and choosing to live in this manner for the sake of not hurting others, well, quite frankly I have never seen something so admirable. And this is all the more reason why I felt the need to…help you.”

You were trembling now, your lower lip quivering as you tried to remain calm. “Ignis…” You choked. “But you’ve read the reports. You…you know what this daemon of my breed does with compelling. I-It was my aura that made you do that. It was-“

“It was not, Y/N,” Ignis cut in softly. “It was something that I wanted to do for you. That….” And your eyes widened at the slight blush that crept across his cheeks, “that was something that I wanted to give to you, and perhaps wanted on my part as well…”

_Gods…oh Astrals…he….he_ wanted _that?_

“B-But why, Ignis? Why? Why me? You didn’t even know me. You really didn’t and still know nothing about who I am. And you trusted me? Why? Why did you give in?”

“It’s hard to explain,” he replied, and despite how much you read of the royal advisor and new how composed this man could be from the news reports on the affairs at the Citadel, in this moment you could see that he was flustered at a loss for his words. “But…I felt myself…. ‘drawn’ to you. Something about you I have never witnessed before. And no, it was not the powers of this ‘daemonic’ aura which you claim to possess. It is something about you and you only. I saw how alone you felt. How much you have been suffering. And perhaps you could say that given my current plight to save the lives of these citizens as well as seek the answers to save our King, it was all the more reason that I could not walk away from you in that need and hunger you possessed.” And he paused, seeming to blush more deeply, and he cleared his throat before he spoke his next words. “I must say too: this life I lead and my pursuits I enterprise through does not leave me much room for companionship. My fellow Crownsguard and I are always quite caught up in our tasks and even we do not have much time for interaction between us as compatriots. And so…” And now even he too was rattled over what he was about to say, “perhaps there was a sense of loneliness that pervaded my spirit that sought need to be fulfilled in your presence. I am a man, after all...”

Gods, would your flesh burn bright red now if it could, but hearing the sudden spike in his heartbeat as he looked upon you, you fought with every muscle and nerve and fiber in your body to remain levelheaded at his confession.

“O-Oh, I…I see,” you murmured, your throat constricting once again as your toes began to squirm anxiously in your shoes.

Ignis turned on the couch to face you directly, and slowly, he extended his hand and reached out to touch your face. Once more you melted to his touch, and grasping gently upon his hand you pressed it more firmly to your cheek. How were you able to remain so calm and collected in this sudden intimacy of this moment, you never knew, as if somehow the human side to your soul managed to slay your daemon half. But as his broad hand began to massage the side of your face, his gesticulations soothing beyond relief and affectionate beyond compare, it was at this moment that all prior fears you possessed over the tainted impression that you initially gave this man dissipated into nothing.

“Ignis…” you said softly, and without even realizing it you clasped his hand and brought it your lips to kiss the leather fabric as gently as you could manage. “You…you still didn’t fully answer my question. Why…why you are _here_. _Now_. In this moment?”

Ignis inhaled sharply as your lips grazed and nuzzled against his hand as if you had been starved for human contact your whole life. “F-For three reasons,” he managed to say as he cleared his throat, and you reluctantly released his hand to allow him to focus on his words. “The initial reason being of upmost importance that I think will mean much to you. Something rather astounding in its implications if we managed to be correct in our research. We…we think we perhaps found a way to develop a vaccine for the Scourge.”

Time stopped, and save for the rain pattering onto to the rooftops of Insomnia, the room was hushed as you gathered your thoughts. “A…vaccine?” You asked, feeling the stillness of your heart manage to stir somehow. “But…but how? How is that even possible?”

Ignis looked at you seriously as he studied your face. “You are a very special case,” Ignis began. “A case that the hunters and myself have yet to encounter. You are the only individual I’ve ever encountered who has been infected with the Scourge and has yet carried on ever so humanely. You have not lost your humanity nor have changed physical form. Speaking with Dr. Sania Yeagre who is our chief researcher at the moment, she has reason to believe that you may perhaps be the solution to our problem and that you carry the means to find a remedy to this disease.”

“Are…are you serious?” You hastily cut in, shifting yourself closer to him as a sense of exhilaration coursed through you. “B-But how? What do I have to do to help with your research?”

Ignis looked at you seriously for moment, his gaze suddenly shifting down to your bare arm. “It’s…it’s all rather simple. All we need is…well…a sample of your blood.”

How ironic things in life seem to turn out.

“M-My blood?” You stuttered incredulously. “T-That’s all you need?”

“Y-Yes,” Ignis breathed. “We have reason to believe that your blood carries the antibodies and resistance factors that we can use as means to develop a vaccine of sorts. All I would need is to just take a sample from you and deliver it back to Dr. Yaegre’s lab.”

You swallowed as you fluttered your lashes at him. “P-Please. Let me help. What do you need me to do?”

“If you could just extend your arm for me, that is all I need.”

You quickly obliged, and Ignis momentarily got up off the couch and walked over to his knapsack on the floor. Unzipping it and rummaging around inside, he pulled out a few objects, and turning around to face you, you could see that it was a small bottle of antiseptic, bandages, and a needle in which he held in his hands. Even as a human you were never a fan of needles and so as Ignis approached you smoothly you felt yourself shuddering at the sight of the pointy object in his grasp. Ignis took note of your apprehension and sat down by your side once again, taking a hold of your extended hand and massaging it in his hands. “I promise you that I will make this as pain free as possible.”

A soft laugh somehow escaped your lips. “I…I think I can handle this. And well, you know, I’m no stranger to pricks.”

Ignis blushed slightly and smiled in return, and taking careful attention, he brushed his hand over the length of your soft arm and pressed his this thumb gently along the ridge of your forearm where your bicep met your elbow. He took the antiseptic and poured a little bit onto a rag which was in his hand, and very carefully he cleaned the skin he was about pierce. And yet as you watched him, part of you wanted to laugh over the endearing implications of his action. You weren’t even a living soul, and yet here he was, ensuring the sterility of your health as if he was afraid you would contract an infection by him not sterilizing you prior. And all the while as he cleaned you, he was ever so focused and intent upon your arm, the warmth of his hands soothing your frigid flesh. With your lashes fluttering at him, he took a hold of the needle and inspected it before bringing it down to the bend of your elbow. “Are you ready?” He asked you gently.

You nodded, and as he slowly inserted the needle, it was not a hiss of pain that escaped your lips but a soft contented moan, and with burning cheeks you watched as the black fluid that was called your blood slowly was pulled forth from your veins. You watched in fascination as the small vial slowly was filled, and it was even Ignis himself who seemed to be caught off guard by the blackness of what used to be the blood that provided you life. Without even realizing it you had shifted yourself so closely to him that your knees were interlocked with his, your body quivering with the delight at the feel of the sharp prick on your arm. But feeling a sudden sense of embarrassment wash over you, you looked up into Ignis’s eyes to see him blushing deeply, his lips parted as he tried to remain focused on his task at hand.

With the vial finally filled, he carefully removed the needle from your arm and capped it over, his hands carefully working to wash your puncture wound and cover it with bandages. Letting go of your grasp for a moment, he stood up and headed over to the fridge to store the vial within to keep the precious fluid safe. Avoiding your gaze for just a second, his face still red from your reaction, he placed the bandages back in the bag and made his way back over to the couch.

“What is most unfortunate about this procedure,” he continued as you took note of the way his heartbeat quickened in his chest as if he felt as sense of guilt, “is that we do not know how successful our experiment will be. Unfortunately, we also might perhaps need a sample of DNA from the daemon itself which…which you might be considered classified as, and as you know our attempts at finding the beast have been most unsuccessful so far.”

He seemed distraught over this, but nonetheless, you could not help yourself from reaching out to grab at his hand and bring it back to your face for warmth. “Ignis…it’s fine. You can take whatever you need from me for whatever research you need to conduct. If that means saving others who meet the same fate as me, I’ll do whatever it takes to help you.”

“And saving _yourself_ , might you add,” Ignis added, and you possibly could not ignore the beautiful sound of the fluttering of his heart in his chest. “Which…this brings me to my second reason of visit here.” Ignis lowered his hand from your face and gently removed his hand from your grasp. Curious as to what he was doing, he shifted upon the couch and began to maneuver his arms out of his leather coat. Pulling the garment from off his arms and draping it over the backside of the couch, instantly your nostrils flared and your eyes broadened at the sight of his lean and muscular arms that were now fully exposed. With the revealing of such skin, Gods, did he smell deliciously divine, and quickly shutting your mouth you attempted to hide your fangs that were gradually expanding within your mouth.

But Astrals, it was the sight of his fully exposed throat after removing his jacket that almost instantly drove you into a state of beastly madness, and it was all you could to remain seated as he took a hold of your claw once more.

“T-Tell me, Y/N,” Ignis began, stuttering slightly as he looked you in the eyes. “Have you noticed a change in your feeding patterns since we…since we last were graced with each other’s presence?”

You stared at him for a moment, trying to understand exactly what he was getting at. But mulling it over in your mind, you felt your eyes go wide as such a stark realization fully began to wash over you. Why yes. It had only been several weeks since you encountered Ignis for the first time, but in your own nightly excursions to find a source for food, you did in fact begin to notice you had not needed nor sought the blood from the butchery as often as you had prior. In fact, you needed to feed less.

_Does…does Ignis mean that…_

“I thought so,” Ignis clarified, shifting upon the couch as he took note of your expression. “I most hate to say this, Y/N, but despite how incredibly admirable your intentions were in avoiding human contact and feasting upon the blood of animals, doing such was not enough and was not giving you the nourishment you needed to survive comfortably.”

_Gods, what the hell is he implying?_

“Ignis…are you…are you saying that…?”

“I am,” Ignis answered softly, “And I even see this right now as we speak. You appear to be in much more control of yourself because you had allowed your body to seek the proper nourishment for your condition. You must have apparently been depriving yourself of an essential nutrient only found in human blood that allows you to function on a level manner. And so…” He paused, removing his gloves slowly and sitting them upon the coffee table next to the couch, “I would like to suggest a proposition of sorts to you, one that would give you some sense of peace and perhaps satisfaction.”

You watched as his Adam’s apple shifted in his throat, the sight alone one of the most appetizing visuals you had seen. Even worse, the sudden sputtering of his heart beat made you question what exactly it was that he was advising.

But surely you knew, and gods would you be sent to hell for it.

“Ignis…you can’t be serious. You can’t be suggesting what you are suggesting to me!”

“But surely I am,” he cut in. “Do you truly, _truly_ believe for one moment, Y/N, that I am going to continue to allow you to subject yourself to the base and sordid routine you put yourself through every night with what you call feasting? It surely would be inhumane for me to be ok with you do so any longer, hence why I am advocating this arrangement.”

You laughed incredulously at this, still not believing what you were hearing. And yet, the more you mulled over such a prospect in your head, the daemon half of your mind slowly began to win over your human one. “Inhumane? And you think that by doing what you’re suggesting will be any better?”

“Yes. Yes I do,” he said somewhat rather harshly as now both of his hands grasped upon yours firmly, and his tone startled you as his intense gaze pierced through yours. “Because in this case you shall not feed alone. And even more so, it would give me peace of mind in knowing that you shall be properly satiated.”

Before you could protest further he removed his hands from yours and brought them up to cup both sides of your face and pull you close to press your forehead to his. “Please allow me to make this offer to you. I cannot walk away from you here and allow you to suffer any further.”

You were frozen within his grasp, his warm breath upon your face and the heat of his palms pressing into your frozen cheeks. You were trembling and quaking, your legs interlocked with his and your blood-red eyes blackening as you fought with the monster inside. Gods, you wanted him. You wanted him more than anything. You needed him. It was all you could think about since you had last parted, and now, here within the silent and rainy stillness of the night, gods, what kind of what monster would you be to deny him what he wished to give you?

You nipped your lower lip, the movement of your mouth exposing for just a moment your fangs that protested to your moral obligation, and finally, _finally_ did you allow yourself to give in.

“Ignis…” you whispered, giving him a soft nod.

And his lips were now upon yours, his powerful heated lips pressing against yours like a man at his own wit’s end, and finding yourself melting into his frame you began to kiss him back with equal fervor. Whimpering at his touches as his hands cupped your face tenderly, you began to tremble with anticipation at your next move as his smell became more apparent than ever, each pulse of his blood within his veins seeming to send you into overdrive. Using gentle force, you placed your claws upon his chest and carefully began to maneuver him onto his back, his upper torso propped up pillows and the edge of the couch as you straddled his lap. You moaned against his mouth, taking special care to not scrape your fangs over his lips.

“I-Ignis,” you whimpered as you began to shake above him, and gasping harshly your blackened eyes widened as he grabbed upon your hips and pushed you down more firmly onto his frame. As if the mad pounding of his heartbeat was no indication to his apparent arousal over such an intimate situation, it was the prominent bulge in his jeans pressing upwards into the your already soaked heat through your panties and jeans that made you feel a little less guilty about his proposition. Your flesh burning with desire and your lips parted as you lost yourself to the feel of his body under yours, quickly your gaze darted to the flesh of his neck, the vein along the side of his throat twitching in anticipation of your next move.

“Y/N, please, I insist,” he said breathlessly as he took note of your apprehension, and for a second you thought you sensed fear within his tone. But nevertheless, he bucked his hips upwards into your groin which caused you to fall over him and place your claws upon the couch around the sides of his head. You bit your lip, and hesitantly surrendering, you now lay yourself over him completely, his arms instantly wrapping around your back as you nudged his chin up with your nose. Holding onto the one side of his neck with your small hand, the other bracing itself upon his shoulder, you took a deep ‘breath’, opened your mouth, and latched your teeth onto his neck.

Instantly Ignis gasped harshly, a loud groan escaping his lips as the taste of his blood began to fill your mouth. Astrals, it was just like last time, the taste of his lifeforce unlike anything else you could have ever imagined, but unlike last time where you had been driven purely by your own bloodlust, this time you took extra care to control the movements of your tongue and mouth and teeth. Your eyes were shut tightly though for more than one reason, his blood satiating you in a manner that you never thought could be fulfilled and his arms wrapped possessively around your back as he held you in place, not allowing you to move away from him. All the while Ignis whimpered your name, the occasional strained groan leaving his mouth as he gritted his teeth. Feeling afraid that you were going to take your feeding too far, you removed your mouth from his neck and shifted your face to look at him. His cheeks were flushed profusely, a sheen of salty sweat now coating his face and neck and even his arms, and feeling suddenly humiliated at the state that you must currently look, you used your tongue to lick at your lips as best as you could as you embarrassingly turned to look away from him.

“Do not be shy,” Ignis croaked as he wriggled underneath you and reached up to touch your cheek. “You have no reason to feel shame.”

“Oh Ignis…”

And so you gave yourself a second helping, a very careful second helping as you slurped at the blood that dripped from his puncture wood, and all the while you listened to the sputtering of his heart in his chest and the whines and groans of your name that tumbled out of his mouth. As he now gripped starkly at your hips and you felt his legs quiver and the protuberance within his pants press up into you, you came to realize very quickly the selfishness of you that was presented in the situation before you.

Lapping affectionately and carefully at the wound you created and at the mess you made of the tactician, you shifted yourself over his body as you slowly raised yourself to a sitting position upon his lap.

He was breathing heavily beneath you, his own pupils blown, his face flushed, and his pompadour very much disheveled as he stared up at you, and feeling once again that you looked like a mess, you began to wipe away at the blood that was on your lips. He reached up and with his own hand removed a droplet that was in the corner of your mouth, and quickly grabbing onto his hand you sucked on the finger which contained the blood. He gasped harshly to this, and groaning once more he shifted beneath you, feeling utterly helpless to your touch.

“Y-Y/N,” he groused, and with his hand caressing the side of your face you would have died happily within this very moment of your existence just at the way he looked up into your eyes.

“Y-Yes, Ignis?” You replied, trying to keep your composure as the warmth of his hand continued to soothe you.

“I…I had one more intent behind my visit to you this evening…”

You swallowed harshly, and with the prickling of your flesh and by the pressing of his manhood upwards into your heat, you felt you already knew his answer.

“Yes…Ignis?”

“I..I…” And it was as though it took every ounce of strength within him to utter his words, as though a sense of moral dilemma and shame washed over him. And yet, by the tinge of pheromones in his sweat on his body and his rather sporadic rising and falling of his chest, perhaps it was at this moment that the beast within _him_ tried to reason with him as a man. “While we’ve been parted, since I last saw you…save for my duty I have thought of nothing else. You have not left my mind for one moment. Your eyes…the softness of your hair and the smell of your skin. Your touch. Gods, you are beautiful, despite the state that you declare to be so shameful of. And…” And he blushed more deeply as his hands began to skim over your thighs, as though the royal advisor in him was afraid to admit to his shame, “gods, the way I felt inside of you. So exquisite. I haven’t been able to get the sensation out of my mind. I...I…”

Tears of joy streamed down your cheeks. You had wanted a mate so badly. You wanted to feel one with someone else, and gods did that moment of mating with him feel so blissful. And now, here beneath you , was Ignis Scientia pleading with you to mate with you once more.

You surely would waste no time. You would be his.

“I am yours,” you whispered. “I am yours. Please.”

With a strength that surprised you beyond belief, Ignis sat up swiftly and grasped you securely in his arms. Holding you tightly against his frame, he scooped you up into his arms, his lips falling to yours once more and his nostrils flaring at the taste of his own blood on his mouth. Knowing just where to go though, he carried you down the small hallway and into your bedroom where he immediately lay you down upon the bed and covered your body with his own. Kissing every inch of his face you nuzzled your nose against his, your claws wasting no time in beginning to fumble with the hem of his shirt. Perhaps in another life, perhaps in another time you would be more patient, but with the scent of your own drenched loins permeating the room and the aroma of his sweat and cologne clouding your senses past all comprehension, you both knew that at this moment in time in the privacy of each other’s company, you needed to mate more than ever.

His shirt was off now, and your mouth watered and your fangs elongated at the sight of his lithe, lean, and sculpted pectorals and abdominals. Gods, you had never seen anything so beautiful in your life, and reaching up to kiss and gently nipping his lower lip as a sign of your approval of what you saw, you whined and mewled at wanting to see even more. Ignis sighed against your mouth as his hands began to tug at your shirt, and quickly obliging you lifted your arms to allow him to rid you off the meddlesome garment. A sharp sigh left his lips too at the sight of your almost naked torso, and with a groan he brought his mouth to kiss along your collar bone and over the mounds of your breasts.

“Y-Y/N,” He whined as if the aroused man within him could no longer withstand his own desires. He reached up to remove his visors and sat them on the table beside the bed, and it was as if only now he was able to appreciate the beauty that was presented to him beneath him for the first time with his own eyes, even within the darkness of the night.

Your legs wrapped around his waist and you ground against him, mewling like an animal again and biting your lip as a sign of your submission. He took note of what you wanted and skimmed his hands along your waist to grasp at the hem of your pants, him making quick work of the garment and your shoes and tossing them to the floor. Gods you were grateful that despite your daemonic biology in reprieving you of most human bodily functions, you thanked the Astrals in this moment in time that the reactionary processes of your reproductive system still functioned as normal; as soon as Ignis rid you of your pants, his own nostrils flared as he looked down at your clothed-soaked heat, your essence already dripping from between your legs as indication of your need to breed and mate. Sensing your desperation, Ignis made quick work of his own and threw them to the floor next to yours, and save for your undergarments you were both entirely exposed to each other.

Your eyes darted to every inch of him. The tensing of the muscles in his neck in which you fed. His broad shoulders and his beautifully lean arms. That chest and stomach which you could hardly refrain from touching and his taut hips and his hard as rock thighs that flexed with anticipation as you made light work of your bra and panties and made yourself vulnerable to him. For once in this existence as a fiend that you lived, for once in your shadowy life did you feel the heat of your former human body envelop you as his lips kissed every inch of your breasts and stomach and in-between your thighs, and writhing as he gently pressed his fingers into your heat did you beg to the Astrals that they could let you remain in this state of ecstasy for the remainder of your life.

It was all too much, and tears streamed down your eyes as Ignis’s name tumbled out of your mouth and your toes wigged at the feel of his touches. Hardly unable to withstand his gesticulations any more you gripped onto the hem of his briefs and pulled them off, and whimpering with delight you could not feel any more blessed at the sight of what was about to pierce into your core and give you the pleasure you needed.

Ignis was all too overwhelmed, his breathing erratic and his manhood twitching and pulsating as you began to run your hands up and down the velvety heated length that felt like fire in your claws. He too was almost unable to keep his wits about him as he fell upon you and kissed you, his heat pressing between your thighs as his hands snaked through your hair and tugged to allow him to place kisses upon your face and neck and throat. You cried out his name, seeking respite as he held you in his embrace, and looking up into his eyes and clutching on his face, you kissed him one last time and nipped gently at his throat with all the restraint you could muster as you uttered your next words.

“Ignis, please. I need you inside of me now.”

With his own overwhelmed tears trickling down his cheeks at the softness of the desperation in your words, he pressed his forehead to yours as he plunged into you deep to his hilt, and gods did he make you feel human once more. A mangled cry escaped your lips, the thickness of his length filling you completely and stretching you beyond compare. As he began to move over you, the sound of his heartbeat through his chest almost deafening to your ears, you felt your body instantly succumb to the passion of his lovemaking. With your claws digging into his shoulders and your legs wrapped tightly around his waist, you pressed your mouth to his throat once more and bit down gently, the taste of his blood filling your mouth again as he pounded into from above. Your slickened walls gripped at his length, the girth of his manhood exerting just the right amount of pressure in your heart, and gods you swore you would have never felt anything more perfect in your life. Ignis groaned all the while, seeming utterly lost to ecstasy and the sensational feeling of your passage, and for just a moment as he took you from above he held onto your head as you lapped at the puncture wound on his neck.

“Y/N…Y/N…” He moaned like a man at his wit’s end as he quickened his pace. “Gods, the way you feel…” He could hardly formulate words, and lifting your head from his throat you now pressed your mouth to his lips and kissed him. At this moment he could hardly care less at the blood that was on your mouth, and the taste seeming to spur on his motions even more, he gripped tightly at you as he slammed into you with more force.

“Ignis,” you whined, wanting more and more of him as he thrust deeper into your heat, and you felt your walls begin to tighten and swell within you. As you pulled your lips away from his and his sighs of pleasure tumbled out of his mouth, the daemon within you knew what you wanted more than anything at this moment. “Ignis, l-let…let met move…”

Kissing you once more before reluctantly pulling his length out of your passage, Ignis sat upon his haunches, his chest rising and falling madly and his body sheened in sweat and his hair completely messy and disheveled about his head. There was never a more beautiful sight in this entire dark world, and biting your lip bashfully and fluttering your lashes up at him, you pulled yourself up, and with giving him one last look you situated yourself upon your claws and knees and spread your stance wide open.

You were a monster. A fiend. A beast. And by gods did you want to be taken like one.

“Oh Gods…” he whined, and turning your head back around to look at him his eyes were wide and his pupils were blown with lust, and nipping your lower lip again you completely reveled in the sight of his shaft twitching and pulsating at the way in which you presented yourself. He wasted no, his hand grasping upon the base of his shaft and pressing the head to your entrance. In an achingly delightful motion he sheathed himself deep within your depths and began his relentless pace one more, and instantly you began to scream and growl his name as he mated with you like the animal you were. You tore at the bedsheets with your claws to steady yourself as his hips flushed right to your behind, and the smacking of wet flesh resounding around the room only caused you to throw your head back up towards the ceiling and howl his name. He too was whimpering and moaning your name, his nails digging into your now heated flesh and surely leaving marks, and with his pace quickening your instincts began to pick up on his tell-tale signs of impending release.

And with the indescribable pleasure he was giving you, you were there with him too.

He whined loudly, the pumping of his blood blaring in your ears as his thrusting suddenly sputtered, and with your eyes widening and you bearing your fangs, you felt his shaft sputter in your depths as his hot seed ribboned forth and spurted into your heat. You screamed, and the sensation of him filling your depths was enough to send you over your own edge, your decadence tearing up through your throat as tears joy and pleasure streamed down your cheeks. In a beautiful chorus you called out each other’s names, your walls clenching and pulsating around his length as he savored every moment of the feel of him deep within your passage, and with one last dribble of his seed and the final clench of your heat around his length, your climaxes subdued and you collapsed as one.

For a moment nothing was uttered and not a sound was heard, save for the gentle falling of rain pattering upon the rooftops and streets of the city and the breathing of the man whose body now blanketed yours as to shelter you from the evils that roamed outside in the night. Your body was trembling as he held you tightly, and with him shifting over you he now rotated himself and pulled you against his chest for you to listen to his heartbeat. It was uneven but nevertheless soothing, the rhythm setting your own exhausted body to ease as you lay within his arms.

_Gods, let this moment be real. Please tell me this isn’t all a dream._

It felt all too surreal, but surely this was no dream. The room smelled of blood, sweat, semen, tears, flesh, cologne…all the things in your miasmal life that you very much quickly came to love, if only life would allow you to be blessed with such forever. With your fangs retracting and your hunger and lust satiated, your body trembled within his arms as he held you within his warm embrace.

He pressed a kiss to the top of your head and began to stroke your hair, and it was all you could do to hold back a sob at the joy and affection you didn’t think you deserved. But _perhaps_ , just perhaps you did deserve to find some peace. Maybe this was your sign that there was hope. Just maybe, with him by your side as your mate, there would be a light in this darkened fate that you feared would befall you as the nights passed.


	3. The Attachment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have to say that out of all of the writing that I have done since I started writing fan fiction for FFXV back in November, this is probably one of my top favorite chapters/pieces that I have done.
> 
> I will keep my opening notes short again, but I think this third part goes to show that one does not have to know someone his or her whole to feel close or "attached" to them; feelings can grow in such a short duration of time and it is one's actions that can portray the depth of how he or she feels for another. Part Three here certainly solidifies this notion between the Reader and Ignis.
> 
> As always, comments are more than appreciated! I love hearing your thoughts on what I write!
> 
> *You can find me on Tumblr as missyunie!

_There is life in the dark_

_So small but there you are_

_Hand in hand, this life, you are_

_Something I can't understand_

_Endless thoughts, they get ahead_

_Blue against my better sense_

_I am trying my best_

_To fit in with the rest_

_\- London Grammar – “Who Am I”_

Four months had passed and yet the Hunters HQ and the members of the Crown had yet to be successful in finding the elusive killer. The number of citizens who landed in hospitals and had lost their lives to the daemons had almost increased tenfold and the local newscasts reported that it was more important than ever for citizens to remain at bay within the safety of their residencies at all costs. Much more to your dismay, Ignis and his fellow associates had reason to believe that now there were multiple daemons of your “species” that stalked innocent lives; either the daemon was becoming more sporadic with its behavior and sought more blood as the nights got slightly longer, or perhaps it had discovered more of its brethren within the city and planned specific attacks that would divert the attention of officials to multiple parts of the city.

“It is most important that you remain more adamant than ever in safeguarding yourself when I am not present, my sweet,” Ignis murmured to you one night in particular in the beginnings of your discourse together; his expression was forlorn as the two of you read over a rather particularly despairing report that spoke of a mother left for dead and her five-year-old daughter and husband landed in the hospital both in comas. “I don’t know how I could live with myself if anything were to befall you…”

The sound of one of his pet names for you rolling off his tongue helped set your anxious mind to ease, but the strain within the eyes of the always composed advisor shattered your departed heart beyond measure. Nuzzling his hand against your face and nipping at his fingers carefully, you did your best to force a smile.

“I do hope you remember that I’ve been doing this for a while now, despite me ‘not being very good at it’,” you teased, using your inside joke in hopes that it would ease some of his tension, as for at this moment it was rather hard for you to ignore the distinct odor of stress within his sweat. “Maybe I’m not as stealthy or strong or menacing as this daemon we’ve been looking for, but you know I can hold my own.” And despite how much he always expressed his mutual need to protect you, deep down in his royally stubborn heart he knew this was the case; you were far from being weak what so ever. “Besides, how do you expect me to just sit around here and not help find answers? I can’t live with myself doing that either, knowing what’s at stake…”

Ignis sighed heavily, a blush creeping over his cheeks at the way you purred while you kissed his hand. “It’s not even just the daemons, Y/N. You know that the hunters and the Crown are in high tension over this entire matter. They will be more diligent than ever in scanning the city for _any_ potential whereabouts of unusual daemonic activity. Which of course-“

“Means me.” You cut in softly, giving him a despondent look. “I know, Ignis. And in fact I think they terrify me a little bit more than the daemons.” You paused though, a rather frightening thought coming to mind. “What…what do you think they would do to me, that is, if they found me for whatever reason? Do you think they would give me a chance like you did?”

Ignis inhaled sharply, and it was as if the sudden reminder of how he assaulted you brought about for him a sense of shame and disgrace. “I…I do not know, Y/N. I truly do not. The hunters have fought long and hard to rid the world of these menaces for years now. Many a year ago myself and my fellow companions helped Dave Auburnbrie obtain an insurmountable surplus of dog tags from many of his corresponding fallen comrades. The Hunters HQ has lost many a fine man and woman at the hands of the daemons. The Glaives surely have had more than their fair share of their plights against such, as for Gladiolus and Prompto…”

You recalled reading about these men in the papers those many years ago, and Ignis certainly on many occasions indulged in sharing stories with you about his adventures with his closest companions.

“Y-Yeah?” You murmured shakily, your lip quivering for just a moment.

Ignis looked you deeply in the eyes and exhaled again. “It is hard to say how they would feel. Prompto would be more likely of the two to show some form of compassion, but knowing his tendency to be a tad bit trigger happy when he is frightened might lead him to make a rash decision and cause you harm. That and he has his own darkened past dealing with the daemons that has left him emotionally scarred that he rather much avoid discussing. Gladiolus though? I’m afraid his grudge against the Scourge has soured him beyond benevolence. I only wish that I were wrong on that…”

“O-Oh,” you whispered, feeling her heart clench as your hand fell from his face, but quickly he grasped it and brought it into his own.

“B-But do not fret fully, my dear,” the advisor quickly added as reassuringly as possible. “Fortunately for you and I, I am in possession of the entire itinerary and roster of the all personnel of the Hunters HQ and the Crown. I can easily access at any time the scheduled locations and routines of anyone as I wish and so we can establish a route of sorts for you to follow so that you know where best to avoid any potential encounters.”

You had only known this man for such a short amount of time in this existence of yours, but even still, there was something deep within your heart that struggled to grasp just how much concern he showed for you and the strides he was willing to take to ensure you were safe from harm’s way.

“Oh Ignis….”

Astrals, you swore that you would do everything to reciprocate that protection for him.

With this in mind, on particular evenings when the hunters and Glavies were out and about, you would resort to staying indoors and engaged yourself in extensive research on your behalf for the whereabouts of the killer as well as attempting to learn all you could about the development of the Starscourge. Some nights you scoured through newspapers provided by different newsstands while on others you listened to the reports on the radio (which you managed to snag from a dumpster, clearly for the sake the owner not needing it anymore) for any additional information of matters that concerned your affairs. On most of these occasions, however, Ignis would join you late in the evening and you as one would partake in your learnings together. Ignis brought with him several old journals provided by a friend to the throne and you together would flip through the ancient pages as you studied the history of the development of the Scourge. For other cases you would huddle around Ignis’s laptop and would read through databases of Insomnian and Niflheim history to see what else you could learn that would prepare you to take on the daemon head on.

During one day when Ignis was partaking in affairs concerning him and his fellow compatriots of the Crownsguard, your usual ‘rest’ during daylight hours failed you as you found yourself too anxious to be sitting around as you waited for Ignis to arrive late in the night. Sighing with frustration in feeling you were not doing enough, it was as your eyes fell to the floor to look at a stack of copies of hunter reports and newspapers that you came up with an idea. Finding a map of Insomnia’s infrastructure in the files that Ignis brought you, you laid the object out upon the floor and quickly began to scan through the newspapers and chronicles in search of key information that could give you a lead. You had done this for hours during the course of the day, never stopping for a minute, and it was as Ignis climbed into your window around eleven o-clock that evening that his eyes opened wide at what he saw hanging upon the wall.

It was the map that was now reddened by the marks of pen and with numbers and names scribbled along each location point.

“Darling, what is this?” Ignis asked curiously with intense interest as he sat down his gear and began to make his way over to you where you stood in front of the map. With the red pen in hand and your tongue in your cheek, you turned to beam at him with the brightest smile imaginable. With his scent immediately clouding your senses and his heart beat pattering in his chest like a beautiful song, you were cast into a state of blissful euphoria at how much you missed him during the course of the day; you rushed into his arms and wrapped your arms around his taut waist, purring as you nuzzled your face into his chest.

“I thought of an idea that might make our researching easier,” you said breathlessly as you leaned up to nip at his chin, and even with your fangs extending slightly as your eyes focused in on his throat, you behaved yourself for the time being since more important matters were at hand. “I went through all of our research so far and marked on the map each and every location of where all the attacks have occurred. I even marked down all the names of the victims, their ages, and the time stamps of when the attacks occurred. I thought that would help us keep better track of what to look for.”

Ignis could only gape for a moment as he stared at the map in awe, and squeezing you against his chest he placed a kiss upon your forehead. “Brilliant, my dear. Absolutely brilliant,” he said sincerely. “How did I not even think of doing something so common-sense?” Of course the man had reasons not to, considering all he already had on his mind, and letting go of you for just a moment he walked closer to the wall and began to scan it up and down. “You did all this just today?” He asked incredulously.

You were beaming at his appraisal of your work, and while it was by no means difficult work, it was tedious nonetheless. In fact, there were so many marks on the map that the red pen in which you wrote almost looked like blood splattered all over the parchment. “Funny what one can do when you need a distraction,” you said with a smile, and he blushed at your implication of how you missed him. “I enjoyed reading when I was a human, but my condition enhances my eyesight and cognition and so I can read faster and remember what I read more easily. I do have to say I am pretty happy with what I found.”

Ignis pushed his visor back up onto his nose as he carefully studied the map, and you joined him at his side with your toes wriggling with excitement upon the floor. “By gods,” he said as his eyes scanned the map. “How did we not notice this sooner?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” you replied as he seemed to quickly take note of what you documented. “It seems that this daemon only prefers the blood of younger, healthier people,” you began to explain. “Unless the elderly have been smart enough to get indoors before the daemons attack, it appears as those our culprit doesn’t like their blood. No one over the age of 45 has yet to be attacked.”

“But these timestamps…and the locations,” Ignis muttered as his eyes quickly scanned over the map. “They are erratic…there truly is no pattern what so ever.”

“I thought you’d notice that too,” you replied, grimacing as you gazed upon his Adam’s apple shifting in his throat. “Insomnia is huge. The fact that we’ve had so many attacks over such a huge expanse of territory? I’m starting to panic over the thought of the theory that we have more than one of these things at hand.”

Ignis nodded in agreement. “And these hours,” he breathed out softly as he trailed a gloved hand over a particular location not too far from the Citadel. “There are cases of the early dawn and dusk before any of the other daemons naturally appear. Why, this only could mean that-“

“Maybe this thing is a little bit more human that we thought,” you mumbled quietly.

Ignis was silent for a moment and turned to look at you with brows drawn, and instantly he began to mull over in his mind the implications of what you said. As discussed between the two of you before, you had been more than a rare case as anyone presented with the infection of the Scourge. Unlike the vast and majority percentage of daemons that would materialize as the night time hours occurred, you always remained physical at all times. Unlike all other cases where the infected human’s veins would be streaked with black, your skin remained untainted and pure as snow. You did not emit the same purple miasma that others of the daemonic race emanated, and save for the inhuman radiance of your red and black eyes, the lengthening of your claws and fangs when you were hungry or felt threatened, and the heightened godlike strength and senses you possessed, one would truly assume at first glance that you were human.

He could only stare at you for a moment as if he was afraid to speak what was on his mind. Thus, you continued. “Ignis…this daemon. Gods, am I scared over it. Something just like me out there, but with no self-consciousness over its actions? That’s more frightening than any Red Giant or Yojimbo or Iseultalon that I’ve ever seen. That doesn’t just have me frightened for the safety of all these people but for you. I know you feel really weary about me going out on these patrols by myself, but how do you think I feel now with the thought that you are doing such on your own when I can’t be with you? I’m not ok with this at all now!”

Immediately you were engulfed in the broad arms of this man that you adored so much with your lowly existence, and with the scent of his flesh and cologne and his favorite coffee suffocating your olfactory senses, for but a moment did you find your concerns mitigated. Ignis held you firmly against his frame, his mouth meeting the top of your head and placing a soft kiss there.

“You never have reason to fear for me, my sweet,” he reassured you softly as he stroked your hair and back, and immediately you began to purr at his gesticulations. “I shall be fine, my dearest. I too have had my fair share of beasts that go bump in the night over the course of these many years…”

It wasn’t until long though before Ignis’s stubbornness got the best of him and led him to change his ways over this subject. One precise evening when you had remained hidden inside, the Glaives and Hunters particularly active not too far away from your location, you were immediately startled by a banging upon your windowsill. Your initial reaction and fear caused you to bear your fangs and your claws to lengthen, but smelling the particular scent that was outside the window, you realized that it was Ignis. With panic-filled adrenaline seeping through your Scourged veins, you rushed to the window to see what in Eos caused Ignis to behave in such an uncouth manner, unlike his usual stealth of sneaking into your window. Unlatching the window and yanking it upwards, immediately your gaze fell to the tactician who was weakly hanging on by his hook and rope and looking far the worse for wear with his clothing in tatters and his hair in an absolute mess.

“I-Ignis!” You shrieked like an animal as you carefully as possible pulled him through the windowsill with your brute strength. Taking only a moment to pull up his rope so you could quickly secure the window behind you and pull the blinds shut, you turned around to see Ignis upon the floor, his breathing erratic and his eyes squinted in pain. His chest was heaving and his face was caked in dirt and grit, and something red was speckled across his left cheek.

But in your haste to ensure that he was alright before anything else, you initially failed to notice the distinct smell of his blood that saturated the room and began to cloud your senses.

_Blood….He’s bleeding…Oh gods…no…no…not now._

Your eyes blackened as you stared down at the royal advisor and your fangs began to lengthen, and it was as Ignis stared up at you with a sudden terror in his eyes and the spike in his heartbeat did you realize how utterly daemonic you looked at this moment.

“Oh Ignis…Ignis…what happened to you!?” You cried, fighting with all your strength to combat your raging urges to feast upon the helpless man, and falling to your knees you hastily began to inspect the man’s body. He was covered in what look like half-heartedly made bandages crafted from his own torn-off sleeves, and swallowing hard you began to tremble as you realized they were soaked through with his blood.

“A surprise brigade of Tonberries,” Ignis hissed as you carefully brought him to a sitting position and maneuvered him against the back of the couch. “This was surely not my first time d-dealing with the fiends, but their master is what caught me off guard before I could react.”

“Oh gods, Ignis! This is terrible!” You wailed, and despite how damned divinely he smelled, you fought to focus as you rushed to your stash of medical equipment that was stored in the pantry and brought the essentials back to his side. “Why on earth didn’t you find one of the Glaives or rush to the hospital? How the hell did you even managed to climb up the window in this condition?”

“I…I…” And the ever so logical tactician was at a loss for words as he realized the careless manners of his ways. “I don’t know,” he replied simply as he winced, you slowly unraveling the soiled bandage that was around his thigh. “You were the first I thought of and no one else. I needed you at this moment.”

Your chest clenched and you failed to find faux breath at his words. Despite you having reasonable control over your bloodlust, even still, in this moment as you took his bandages off one by one and realized how many lacerations marked his body, of all souls he sought for restitute, surely you were the most dangerous he could ever possibly seek out and yet thought of first.

You swallowed hard, your body trembling like the earthquakes brought forth by Titan and it was all you could do to remain composed as you carefully tore away his ragged garments with your claws; save for the shred of fabric that clothed his loins, he was entirely exposed. A tear coursed down your cheek as your eyes fell to each of his injuries, and parting your lips in utter disbelief at the pain he was suffering through, it was with your fangs extending further that you spoke.

_Oh Ignis…This is bad. Really bad. And I need to help him as best as I can._

“Do you trust me, Ignis?”

“With all my life, my sweet…”

Taking a deep breath, you did what your instincts told you to do. Lowering yourself carefully over him, your tongue carefully began lapping over each of his lacerations, and through the ministrations of your mouth you cleaned away the soiled dirty blood that caked his flesh and the markings of his gashes. Never had you such restraint in your life, fighting with every tooth and nail to not feast upon this man in need while taking every precaution to care for the mate you swore to always protect. Much to your delight, helpless sighs tumbled out of Ignis’s mouth as you cleaned him, the coolness of your saliva seeming to help ease the burning of his cuts, and as you made your way over his stomach and down to his thigh that was gashed the deepest of all, he brought his hand up to the back of your head and weaved his fingers through your soft waves. Astrals, was the gesture in such a desperate and despairing moment sensual beyond compare, and hearing his breathing spike as your claw carefully brushed over his torso as you licked him clean made you ever so careful with your touches.

Raising your head and licking your lips clean, you began to wash him down with clean rags soaked with antiseptic. Ignis winced and hissed as the fluid burned his wounds, but pressing your forehead to his to steady him as you worked seemed to help him control his shaking. With careful eyes you took note that the majority of his cuts were only superficial, but the one in particular running down his thigh would require extra work. Perhaps it was higher instinct that told you what to do or an Astral who guided your hand, but you were somehow able to miraculously and properly stitch this wound.

“Y/N…” Ignis whimpered as you worked with surprisingly deft precision, and the tenderness of him uttering your name helped send your own anxiety to ease. He shut his eyes as you weaved the thread back and forth between the flaps of skin. With the final thread stitched to prevent any further bleeding, you once more washed the wounds with antiseptic, put ointment on them and wrapped them in clean bandages, and then broke a mega-potion over his body to help eradicate his pain.

The room was silent for a few moments, you sitting on your haunches as you gaped at Ignis with wide eyes. His eyes were shut still but his chest was no longer heaving like it was, and his lips were parted in peace as if he seemed no longer in discomfort. His hands unclenched and he moved to stretch out his leg, and with his eyes fluttering open his gaze softly fell to yours.

And most of all, much to your highest jubilation, a small smile spread over his lips.

“Y/N….” he murmured softly as he reached out to touch your face, and as always you instantly relished in the feel of his warmth on your skin and began to purr with delight. “I’m…I’m alright…Astrals, thank you…”

You would have blushed if you could, and carefully nipping at his hand affectionately you looked him seriously in the eyes. “Are…are you sure you are alright? You’re not in pain, are you?”

He shook his head as he continued to smile. “No, none at all. Perhaps a tad sore is all, but no pain.”

“C-Can you stand?” You asked hastily. “Do you want to move so you can be more comfortable?”

“Y-Yes,” he breathed with parted lips. “I can stand I think. Moving elsewhere would be most agreeable right now.”

Reaching over him you managed to loop his arm around your shoulder to bring him to a standing position, and only faltering for just a step, he seemed that he was stable enough. Thank the Astrals that you were strong, for any other woman of your size might have difficulty steering the solid and lean, muscular frame of your mate. Leading him down the short hallway to your resting quarters, you helped situate him onto the bed into a reclining position. He sighed deeply as his head hit the pillow, but his gaze upon you was curious as you sat upon your haunches over his shins and stared at him.

“Dear, is everything alright?” He asked you, a faint flush creeping over his cheeks in the dark as he smiled at you again.

Despite the intense direness of this whole situation and how he could have lost his life, you couldn’t help but laugh at his question.

“Me? Alright? Gods, Ignis. I’m more than alright. Elated in fact. I’m glad for the fact that I don’t have to live the rest of my life without you because I could have lost you.” He inhaled sharply at your remark, but before he could open his mouth to respond, you continued. “Promise me you won’t ever do that again. Don’t ever get yourself in a situation like that where I might lose you. From now on, I’m coming with you whenever you go out to hunt.”

Ignis opened his mouth to protest but stopped, and with a small smile creeping over his lips once again, he reached up to touch your face in the manner you loved so much.

You nibbled his finger affectionally as you slowly lowered yourself over him, taking special care not to squish the stitching on his legs. “You get your rest, Ignis. I will watch over you while you sleep…”

From then there on Ignis agreed to your request to be his hunting companion, and while he was never one to doubt the abilities of anyone, he was very quick to learn that you were a much more fearsome and formidable fighter than he was lead on to believe. Despite you choosing to live a mostly passive and temperate life as a daemon, only fighting other fiends when necessary, he was awestruck (and even perhaps terror-struck) at the way your claws would extend to ghastly lengths and your eyes would blaze like a blood-red moon as you hacked at your enemies with ease. Driven by bloodlust to protect your companion, your fangs would tear at the throats of Garchimaceras and your claws would slash menacingly through the viscous forms of Flans and Hecteyes. All the while you brawled you could only gape in awe at the way Ignis wielded his daggers and polearms with such beautiful and deadly precision, and when your battles were won it was all you two could do but gaze at one another with deep admiration and esteem.

You though? Perhaps you felt a sense of deep humiliation on your end, very much knowing how macabre you looked with your hair flying everywhere and your fangs lengthening in your tiny mouth as you stood within the remnants of miasma in the air.

“Y/N,” Ignis whispered as he took note of how you embarrassingly cast your gaze onto the pavement of the Insomnian street where you fought, and you could all but tremble in shame at the way his heart sputtered at the sight of you. Biting your lip shyly and refusing to meet his gaze, you were caught off guard when he placed his hand underneath your chin to pull your face upwards to his. “Y/N,” he repeated. “You have no need to feel humiliated. You have no need to look away from me when you are in this state.” And he began to stroke your hair to smooth out your wild tresses, and feeling his touch sooth you, your fangs surely retracted. Ignis took a deep breath, lifting your face up to kiss you softly, and nuzzling his nose against yours, it was all you could do to not break down into tears as Ignis gave you all the affection in the world you surely didn’t deserve. His lips ghosted over yours as he stroked your cheek, and it was his next words that made you feel like for one more moment in your existence all was alright. “You are beautiful in _all_ ways. Don’t ever forget that or believe otherwise. Now let us get you home so you can feed…”

During the course of these months, much to your aversion but understanding, Ignis wasn’t always able to stay with you each night because of his royal itinerary with helping the Hunters HQ as well as looking for plausible ways to save the King of Light. Even more so, while he had explained to you that he had lived alone in a separate and private apartment away from his friends, he was taking extra precautions and care to not always be absent from his quarters in the middle of the night in fear of drawing potential suspicion to his nightly trysts with you in case he was sought out for help at those hours by his friends. Nevertheless, his visits to you still were so frequent that it made you feel beyond elated to know that someone would be coming home to you in your darkest hours.

Along with his routinely scheduled visits continued his “arrangement” that he propositioned to you. Initially you still expressed extreme apprehension and remonstrance to him allowing you to use him as your feeding ground, you terrified beyond words that you would make one wrong slip and kill him by severing an artery or even sucking him dry and leaving him a shriveled corpse. Despite these protests, little by little you began to appreciate more and more the bodily sacrifice of his own strength and livelihood he was making for you so you did not have to surrender to the repulsive harvesting methods you had put yourself through all those many prior months. Much you to your greatest gratitude you no longer needed to make your nightly excursions to the butcheries to satiate your hungry, for as one feeding upon the throat of Ignis could leave you feeling sated for a week.

But there was more to the feeding rituals than just to feed. What once solely served as a purpose to sustain your life soon became moments of intense bonding and attachment between you as mates. There was something entirely intimate about the way he held onto you tightly and stroked your hair and spine while you sucked gently at his throat, the warmth and firmness of his frame soothing your icy body while your fangs nibble and lapped gently upon the musculature of his neck. As you would softly gyrate your hips against his groin for want of contact with him, helpless and elated sighs would tumble out of his Ignis’s mouth, him seeming to equally enjoy just as much the way he was able to give you such satisfaction of your needs. While his neck and throat were your preferred locations to feed, the positioning of your body upon his while you fed this way allowing you the greatest sense of proximity to his frame, on many occasions you would explore his beautiful body and make meals from other parts of his flesh; his toned pectorals, his shoulder blades, and even the tautness of his inner thigh close to where the life-sustaining femoral artery lie were such places that surely were no strangers to your fangs. Such cherished and delicate feeding practices, despite your bloodlust seeming to get the best of you initially, allowed you to overtime develop more self-restraint and focus on keeping his body safe. To even further the intimacy of your feeding after the fact, you took special and delicate care to clean his wounds and provide medical care so that he would not scab or scar or bruise too harshly to draw suspicions to such markings left behind by your teeth.

Despite every precaution you took to ensure that Ignis was not hurt during these processes, there was on a very rare occasion where he would succumb to his exhaustion and his own hunger and needing sustenance after you fed upon him. The tactician perhaps becoming slightly anemic but choosing to ignore his own little condition for the sake of making you happy, you couldn’t help but feel an intense sense of remorse and guilt for leaving him in such a lethargic state.

Finally wanting to rectify your wrongdoings, you sought out the best solution possible and decided that it was your turn to return the nourishment to him. As you did not have human goods stored within your quarters, you were desperate to obtain such from the local markets and would sneak out before the sun set and the marketplaces closed for the evening. Using your stealth and elusiveness to sneak around food stands, you stole whatever you could that could be prepared for a meal. As soon as you had made it back to your den that night, you quickly began to prepare a simple meal of homemade pasta with Lucian tomato sauce and Daggerquill breasts with Leiden peppers. While the smell was somewhat offensive and nauseating to you due to the way your olfactory system now functioned, nonetheless, you still remembered enough from your human experiences cooking with your family to know that the meal would be acceptable for consumption.

The dinner was just about ready to be dished out for platting when you heard Ignis’s entrance through the window. With your eyes lighting up at the sight of him and your nostrils flaring at his scent that wafted into the room, you quickly removed the dish from the stovetop and turned off the heat. You rushing towards Ignis and colliding into his chest as to greet him, a soft laugh left his lips as he began to stroke your hair.

“My sweet…” He murmured as he lifted your face with his hand on your chin and kissed you, and smiling down upon you with a softness in his gaze his nostrils too now suddenly fluttered as he took in the scent of the room. “What…what is that delectable smell, my dear?”

“I…I made you something for dinner,” you cooed, your cheeks feeling hot despite knowing it was physically impossible for you to blush. Not wanting to let go of him as to how enthralled you were that he was home, you nuzzled your face into his chest and reached up to nip at his chin delicately with your fangs. Despite the brightness of his beautiful emerald eyes you could tell how utterly exhausted he was with whatever tasks had befallen him during the course of the day into evening; with this in mind, you could not help but feel a sense of giddiness wash over you in knowing that you would soon help mitigate his tiredness.

And yet, he raised his eyebrow as he looked over to the kitchenette, seeing the beautifully prepared food-filled pan sitting upon the stove stop and still steaming. “But darling…how…how did you obtain your ingredients? I was not aware you had any within your possession…”

Your face immediately fell. You had very little cash ever on you because you simply did not need such, and anything that you could ever need was brought to you when Ignis made his visits. Quickly you cast your eyes downward to the floorboards, avoiding his gaze out of pure shame in knowing you were about to disappoint him.

“Oh Y/N…” Ignis murmured with a sigh, realizing what you had done.

But as he cupped your chin to have you look up at him he gasped to see tears streaming down your face and your countenance contorted with misery. “I-I’m s-sorry!” You began to blubber as your hid your face in your hands, and at this moment you could not help but notice that as of late you had become exceptionally much more emotional than you ever used to be. “I’m so s-sorry Ignis! I didn’t mean to do something bad! But I was feeling terrible about using you all the time and I wanted to feed you in return so you could have your strength! I promise that I w-won’t do it again!”

You were sobbing now, but with Ignis gently prying your hands away from your face, you could see that he was smiling at you sympathetically. “My sweet Y/N, please don’t shed your tears. It’s all right. I will make sure to pay the vendors tomorrow, and then I can purchase for the both of us ingredients to make recipes together. I will teach you all I know… But my apologies,” He said with a pause, cupping your chin to kiss you, and all the sincerity in the world was in his eyes. “I did not mean to make you cry. I am most grateful for what you did. I truly I am, as the gesture warms my heart beyond compare. And it would surely be a shame to let such an aromatic ensemble of the culinary go to waste. Please, let us dine before your hard work gets too cold.”

Behind your tears you were beaming at him again as you were forgiven, and nipping playfully at his neck you followed him over to the kitchen where you watched him plate the food and carry them over back to the couch where you would eat. But just as he sat down and placed the plates upon the coffee table, he stopped to look up at you staring at him with doleful yes.

“Y/N? Whatever is the matter?” He asked you gently as he tried to read your expression, his brows drawn together with confusion. “Please do know that I am not upset with you at all. Please. Do come eat with me.”

But to this, you smiled sadly at him and shook your head as you took a step closer to the couch. “Ignis, I can’t…I can’t eat that food. I’m not human, remember?”

It was Ignis who was now mortified as he quickly realized that error of his reasoning, and with his face burning beet red he appeared as though he had committed the most malevolent act in the world. With him quickly opening his mouth to apologize you moved so swiftly that he was not able to process your motions, and now you were kissing him softly to shush him.

“No. No sorries,” you mewled as you peppered his face with kisses and nipped at his throat. “No worries at all. It’s ok. Now eat your food before it gets cold.”

But never being one to be selfish, in between his satisfied hums of biting into the meal you so lovingly prepared for him, you would have your fair share of your own feast by sucking upon the newly opened puncture wounds on his throat.

It was the most beautifully shared meal between two mates you could have ever asked for.

Whether it was a change in the development of your condition to seek deeper companionship with a mate or just the adjusting of the consumption of Ignis’s blood, you had noticed over the course of your occasions spent with your lover the greater need to protect him and keep safeguarding him. The moments he had arrived home to your den left you barely able to keep your hands off him in want of touching his beautifully lithe and toned form, and there was something utterly adorable at the way Ignis blushed and smiled at the way you nuzzled against him while you were doing your research together. While you always remained at the task at hand in knowing that work came before all play, even in between moments of mapping out new sightings of the infamous murderer that lurked in the streets below on your map or in between hunts that left you both exhausted and dirtied, you sought Ignis’s warmth and comfort more than ever.

For this of course was the other half of your “arrangement” with the advisor, that comfort extending behind simple naps within each other’s arms or kisses shared between your investigating. In return for the blood that Ignis tendered to you night after night, you were more than willing to offer your body as recompense for his offerings to you. Your couplings were a nightly routine, in the majority of cases more than once a night, and there was something so wonderfully delightful about submitting yourself to the advances of the man who was your mate who provided you with the companionship your intuitions pleaded for you to have fulfilled. Whether it was your daemonic aura that helped spur on his lust or simply his needs as a man that begged for release, you always reveled the most in those evenings he would enter your quarters and give you a look of intense longing as if he had never felt the touch of a woman’s hand in his life. Gods, how quickly you surrendered yourself into utter submission and begged him to mount you and take you like the beast that you were.

And Astrals did you love it when you made love. With your very first two encounters having been done in haste out of fear and desperation and loneliness, over the course of time you as a couple learned to be patient and take the time to learn one another’s bodies, and you could have spent the remainder of your eternities discovering little by little what each of you loved in your intimate moments. There was something so beautifully wonderful about the way the softness of his tresses of hair brushed against your breasts while he kissed your ribcage, and you took all the care in the world to not harshly scrape and claw at the beautiful beauty marks that speckled his arms as you held onto dear life as he pounded into you from above. The way he pressed his fingertips into your heat as he nipped at your shoulders sent you mewling and whimpering and begging for release, and you only wished that you could blush to visually express how much you loved it when he grasped at your buttocks as he bred you while holding you against the wall.

You loved the way he gasped with hushed moans as you trailed your claws ever so carefully down his beautiful length that felt like the heat of the once-forgotten sun in your tiny palms. You adored the way he whined when you rode his lap facing away from him, tilting your head back and urging him on to tug at your hair and remind you whom he belonged to. You could forever live your cursed life admiring that beautifully scarred lip that always parted when your teeth trailed gently down his stomach and the way those stunning emerald orbs widened as you played with your supple breasts as you straddled him from above.

You loved him all.

He could be tender in his love making as you lay upon your sides, his mouth kissing your ear and his hand lifting your leg so you could watch with delight the way his girth sought refuge within your passage. He could be rough as he lay you upon you stomach, his hands pinning you down and his mouth biting the back of your neck like one of your kind would while coupling. He could make you scream and howl in the night as he pressed those calloused fingers against your bud and make your heat become drenched with the proof of your arousal as he mercilessly swirled his finger over that overly sensitive bundle of nerves; he’d press his finger into your depths and curl his fingers and bring you to a climax you never thought possible.

He was all and everything. The only mate you could ever want. The mate you so desperately wanted since you began this lonely trek down this path alone. The mate that for once again in your life made you feel like the human you once were.

Perhaps too was one more development in the change of your biology: Prior to you having ever met the tactician, since you had yielded to your ailment you would once a month suffer from a bought of insatiable desire. Because you could no longer follow forth with the womanly biologic processes of your once human body, you presumed this heat was its replacement as your reminder to seek out one of your kind and breed to produce new young. Despite how frustratingly painful these heats could be, the pulsing and slickening of your loins and the oversensitivity of your breasts causing you to whimper and claw the floor with need and respite, you were able to somehow withstand the torture in your solitude all those months alone. However, as the tactician now was a recurrent part of your life and with his blood sustaining your system, it wasn’t until the first heat at the end of this month in this series of months that you were able to process how utterly and excruciatingly your body suffered with need to breed and produce offspring.

Right before the onslaught of this first heat, Ignis had been gone for several days, having to take care of major affairs for the Crownsguard and organizing an expedition outside of the Crown City to Hammerhead to retrieve very valuable resources for their motor vehicles. With Ignis’s scent permeating every room of your den, the aroma still unbearably strong even after a few days of his absence, it was all you could do from refraining from tearing at your clothes and clawing at your breasts and sobbing for release.

Gods did you miss him and want him, and would he surely be unprepared for you the moment he climbed through that window ledge.

It was that following night that Ignis made his return. It was a rather bitter night outside, a cold mist casting itself across the brooding skyline of the city when Ignis carefully scaled his way up into your quarters. Making sure to secure the window behind him and pull down the blinds for privacy, it was with a disturbing eeriness that he noticed how uncomfortably noiseless your retreat was. The man being ever so cautious and analytical, his eyes scanned the living area in the dark, and slowly walking over to the lamp to snap it on, it was with a loud gasp and a sudden deep blush of his cheeks that gave way to the sight he laid eyes upon.

It was you, the beautiful creature that left him utterly breathless, standing there starkly naked and trembling as if for want of warmth. Your lips were parted and your eyes were wide and doe-like, and with quivering lips you gazed upon your mate with the upmost attraction as if you had never seen someone so exquisitely handsome in your whole life.

“A-Astrals, Y/N! W-What are you doing? Are you alright?” Ignis stuttered, his face completely flushed and his lips parted in surprise. Why of course he surely was no stranger to seeing you naked (in some cases more often in the nude than clothed), nevertheless he surely was not anticipating seeing such an exquisite sight upon his arrival home after days of absence.

“H-Hello, Ignis,” you breathed softly as you took a step closer towards the center of the room, and with an absolute hunger you watched the way his Adam’s apple shifted as he swallowed. His heart was sputtering erratically now, and with you taking in his delectable scent as having not been blessed with such for days, you licked your lips at the sound of his blood pulsing downwards to a very specific region of his body. “I missed you so much…I’m glad you’re finally home…”

Ignis could only gape at you, his eyes locked to yours that blazed red and black as the distinct miasmal aura of your body gave way to your attraction to him. He swallowed again, and with his bag sliding out of his hand, he took a step closer to you, studying the way your chest heaved and how your claws flexed at your sides.

“I…I missed you too, Y/N,” he breathed, and you could have whined with delight at the way he cooed your name. “Astrals, are you alright?” He repeated, appearing utterly flustered as his eyes scanned over your breasts, stomach, and thighs. “Are you…are you hurt? Is something the matter?”

The affectionate concern in his voice only spurred on your lust for him even further, and taking one step closer to him, you instinctually swayed your hips and flexed your claws once more, taking every ounce of strength you had within you to behave yourself for as long as you could.

“I’m…I’m…” You began, biting your lower lip, and at this point you were fully trembling. Your toes pressed into the floor to steady your balance and you parted your lips, and surely by now even Ignis himself could smell your essence dripping down in between your legs.

“What, darling? What’s the matter?” He hastily pleaded with you, and by gods you could hardly hear his words at how loudly his heart was pounding in his chest.

You were suffering so much, and Six you could only take so much anymore.

Tears began to stream down your face as you bit your lip, feeling aroused and lonely and happy and embarrassed and every possible human emotion all at once as you finally broke down. “I-Ignis, I’m in heat. I’m in heat and I can’t take it anymore. I missed you and I was a good girl while you were gone. B-But now I can’t take this anymore. I need you. Please.”

Ignis’s eyes widened and a groan tore up through his throat, the entire planes of his flesh now prickled and flushed with his own desire at the desperation of your words. Surely the royal advisor himself was no stranger to the studies and myths of daemonic mating patterns, and so he widened his stance to steady himself at the revelation that there was truth behind his incredulous learnings standing right before him. You yourself whined with delight at your perceptive sight of seeing something very distinct twitch within the confines of his leather slacks as he stood there, and brushing away your tears you licked your lips as you took a step closer to him.

“G-Gods, you poor creature, my dear,” Ignis muttered, but he was so overwhelmed by the glowing sight of your naked frame and your soft breasts and the smell of your dripping heat that he hardly could even formulate words or take another step. “Y/N, c-come here and-“

You didn’t hesitate for a second as you dropped to your knees and pressed your palms into the floorboards. Immediately Ignis gasped with shock and his jaw slackened at your sudden submissive position, and with the way your fangs poked slightly out of your mouth and your eyes black as night and red as blood staring up at him, you almost began to panic over his sudden spike in his heartbeat.

“Oh Ignis,” you mewled as gently as your voice would allow, fearing that you were scaring him. But slowly on your hands and knees you began to crawl over to him, your hips swaying and your nails digging slightly into the floor as you now sat upon your haunches at his feet. “I missed you, Ignis. Oh I missed you,” you whimpered. Reaching up you grabbed gently onto his thigh and began to press your face to his leg, seeking respite in the warmth of his body that you missed so much.

“Y-Y/N,” he choked, and if you weren’t so lust-ridden at this moment in time you would have giggled at how flustered the usually composed tactician always was. “I-I missed you too, my sweet,” He uttered, his syllables betraying his confidence, and suddenly he gasped loudly as you pressed your mouth to his inner thigh and began to breath in his scent. Out of reaction and instinct he grasped the back of your head carefully and tangled his hand in your hair, and he suddenly started to moan as both your hands began to massage his thighs.

Gods, was the man tense, and whatever the hell he went through in these last few days you most surely wanted to help him forget.

“Ignis…” You cooed, and taking complete control of the situation you swiftly managed to unshackle his buckle from his pants and pull down the zipper of his trousers. Ignis inhaled harshly once more, a pleasured sigh leaving his lips as if a sudden unbearable pressure within his loins was released. Surely enough, his arousal was apparent, for as you pulled down his pants slightly and took in the luscious aroma of his masculine musk and precum, you whined with need at the extremely prominent bulging within his briefs. Licking your lips and peering up at him through heavily lidded eyes, you yanked down his briefs with no hesitation and mewled in absolute appreciation at the reveal of the most beautifully thick and reddened girth you could have ever wanted.

Ignis was speechless; the man who was always so precise with words and ornate with his vocabulary could hardly utter a word to you as he gawked down at you, his gaze never leaving your striking eyes and his fingers further tangling into your tousled waves. You smiled up at him, nuzzling your face against the pristine warmth of his length, and carefully taking it into one hand you immediately began to stroke at it without a moment’s hesitation. Instantly you left Ignis gasping and short for breath, and as you began to pump your tiny little claw up and down faster, he could only mutter your name in absolute ecstasy as he yanked gently at your hair to have you look up at him.

Those beautiful eyes said so much. Gods, did you love those eyes and how they were pleaded with you at this moment.

But even more so, it was the hiking of his breathing and the feel of his engorged shaft within your hand that made you want to give him all you could before he would give you what you wanted.

_Blood…all that beautiful blood right here in my hands._

“Do you trust me?” You murmured as you now cupped his scrotum with your other hand, and his thighs twitched at the added new touch of your nails tickling his delicate skin.

His quivering trepidation of a heartbeat may have said one thing, but him peering into your eyes with all the trust in the world said otherwise.

“Y-Yes,” he whispered, both of his hands now grasping at your face.

How much you adored your mate for having faith in you as he did, for you were about perform on him one of the most dangerous labors of all.

And so, ever so slowly and ever so carefully, you opened your mouth, fangs extending and tongue salivating, and you engulfed his length in its entirety.

How you were even able to trust _yourself_ , you had no idea, for as a mangled exclamation of your name tore out from the mouth of the tactician and the heat of his length extended into the vast depths of your throat, it took every ounce of your mental fortitude to fight back at your bloodlust and not bite down to savor at the fresh reservoir of blood that was now in your mouth. But hearing Ignis’s moans tumble out of his mouth as he tugged at your hair made you take all the extra care to please him and control the animal within you.

But _gods_ did he taste so good, the musk of his heat and the salt of his flesh and that wonderful bitterness of his precum tickling the back of your throat, and moaning yourself with your lashes fluttering shut, you lost yourself to the feeling of the veins within his shaft pulsating against the flat of your tongue. You whimpered loudly, adoring how much Ignis trusted you with such a vital part of his anatomy. You continued your gesticulations, your tongue pressing along his girth as for only a second your fangs grazed slightly along the length. Ignis hissed harshly and for but a second you flinched in fear of hurting him, but as he suddenly yanked on your hair and thrust harshly into your mouth, your sudden apprehension was all but forgotten.

Several moments continued all the while as your bloodlust spurred you on, Ignis moaning your name repeatedly over and over again and causing you to whimper with delight at the pleasure you were giving him. But with him suddenly holding onto your head firmly so you couldn’t move, as you looked up at him with blackened and blood-red eyes, you could see fully how much you were getting to him in this moment.

“Y/N,” he choked, and it appeared he had to exert all his brain power to articulate his words. “T-This isn’t about me right now. This is about you. You need your respite. Let me aid you in that.”

You sobbed with joy around his length, your knees trembling upon the floor and your claws bracing themselves upon his thighs for support. This man was ever so selfless, your mate who wanted to do nothing but please you.

And so you reluctantly removed his shaft from your mouth and nuzzled it against your face one more time before you resituated yourself, you turning around to face away from him and shimmying your hips in the process. Situating yourself upon your hands and knees, you readied yourself for his intrusion, your tight little heat dripping and opened wide for him to see.

“ _Gods_ …Astrals…Y/N…”

Astrals, did he know how much you loved it when he mated with you this way as nature intended, and wriggling your behind to entice him you purred in absolute delight as you turned your head back around to see him hastily undressing and letting his clothing pool to the floor in a crumpled heap. Removing his glasses from that wonderfully sculpted nose of his and sitting it on the side table beside the couch, he lowered himself upon his knees with the swiftness of an Elder Coeurl and grasped at your smooth hips with his broad hands. You growled and mewled again as he squeezed you tightly, and by gods was it torture hearing his heart beat deafeningly as evidence to his arousal.

“Ignis…Ignis…” You purred as he teased you for a moment by rubbing the head of his shaft over your sopping entrance, and the feel of its soft, velvety tip caressed your little bundle of nerves that missed its companion in heat ever so much. But without giving you a warning, he pushed his girth to the depths of your passage to the hilt, a strangled moan falling from his lips as if he forgot how exquisite your walls felt tugging on his girth. Giving into his own sudden needs to seed you and remind you of how much he missed the warmth of your passage, without hesitation he began a quick and frenzied pace as if the animal within him could hardly no longer be subdued.

You were screaming and purring and pushing your buttocks backwards towards his hip bones as he pounded into you mercilessly, the sound of his scrotum slapping against your soaking folds setting you into a rage and making you cry with joy. Your fangs were extracted, wanting more than anything to sink your teeth into him as his nails began to scrap along the milky curves of your waist and buttocks, but helpless to his beastly gesticulations you could hardly withstand to stay upon your hands and knees as he sent you into crying out his name.

He braced one leg up along your body and raised himself slightly, allowing himself to reach deeper depths into that slickened core that made him feel like home. He too was now growling like a fiend, and as you turned your head around to look at him, you whimpered and snarled his name at the sight of his teeth gritted and his eyes boring into yours. _Yes, I am your mate and yours only_ , you thought as he slammed into you harder, and him reaching with his strong hand to push your upper body downwards onto the floor you were euphoric over submitting yourself to him as he held you down, your face pressed to the floor and teeth bared and a blissful smile gracing your lips.

Gods how you came for him, your heat coiling and twitching and tightening as your passage tugged onto his shaft and you screamed out his name like an animal, and with Ignis snarling in response he too climaxed to join you. You yipped and whined with fever with each spurt of his hot seed that coiled into you and filled your passage, and what you would have given at this very moment to never have him let go of you with those hands that grabbed at you with all the need in the world.

You thought he was spent, Ignis’s breathing ragged and his sweat dripping down his lithe musculature, and with his cheeks flushed and his hair disheveled and sweaty upon his head, he reluctantly pulled out of you. You whined and bared your fangs at the feel of the seed that filled you to the brim slowly dripping out of your heat and down your inner thighs, and with you slowly raising your upper part of your body, you resituated yourself on your hands to turn around and gaze upon your handsome lover.

But it wasn’t just you apparently who was experiencing a frenzied fervor, for with your nostrils flaring and your eyes widening did your gaze fall to his slickened member that had yet to soften into remission.

Was it perhaps the affect of your aura that aroused him further or perhaps it was simply because he missed you. But nonetheless, Astrals would you never complain at him desiring to breed with you once more as he scooped you up and carried you to the bedroom, him immediately blanketing your body and kissing you passionately as he thrust into you from above. You latched onto his neck as you steadied your hands upon his shoulders, and drinking his blood as he made love to you once more was all you could ever have asked for in this moment of your plagued existence.

Despite the intensity of your mating sessions, what always ensued afterwards was at its purest form what every wistful and hopeful woman could ever wish for in a lover in life. Your bodies subsequently coated in sweat and the smell of blood and semen and salt and other remnants of your love making thick in the air, you would lie awake until the quiet hours of what little daylight would come, your limbs wrapped around each other’s as you shared all your stories of your lives. As Ignis stroked your hair and kissed your head while you suckled gently upon the curvature of his clavicle, he would tell you of all his adventures with the Crown Prince and the royal retinue. From the breaking down of the infamous Regalia and the trek to Hammerhead, the plights on the way to Galdin Quay, and the endeavors to Lestallum, Altissia, Cartanica, and Niflheim, you found yourself subdued to tears as you wept at the bittersweet memories shared by the hand of the king. How much it broke your heart of how these men’s ties temporarily were severed at the hands of the Scourge, and what you would have given for the remainder of the darkened years to pass swiftly so they could be reunited in the light.

“I really do wish I could meet your friends,” you murmured, feeling a tear trickle down from your cheek and onto Ignis’s chest. “I admire them for all they have done for the people of this city. They sound like they would do anything for you too, especially now.”

Ignis sighed heavily and pressed a kiss to your forehead. “I know, my sweet, I know. But, now is not the best time, as you know...” And it was true. These men had gone through far too much dealing with daemons for you to risk your life in introducing yourself in hopes of making their acquaintances. Even as you lay here within the stillness of the oncoming morning light attempting to poke through the blinds, you still had difficulty grasping the concept that Ignis of all members of the Crownsguard was the one who was willing enough to give you a chance.

“One day…maybe one day…” You murmured, “when this is all said and done…”

Ignis sighed deeply again as he placed another kiss upon your head, and the sweetness of the gesture was enough to make you purr. “Tell me love. Tell me more about your youth,” he asked you softly.

And so you did. You told him of all the stories of your elementary years and how you once broke your arm from falling off a swing set. You shared with him the story of how you received the lead role in your fifth-grade play, only to forget all of your lines on opening night. You told him of the stories of your first high school softball match and how you scored a homerun that won your team the game.

You talked of your first pet, you losing your best friend who had moved far away to Accordo, how you had your heart broken the first time when you were sixteen, and how your family would spend holidays together. But even worst of all, you shared with him the fears you faced as the days got shorter and the daemons became an ongoing menace.

“It became increasingly harder to do my job because of the daemons, but then again that’s how it’s been for everyone else,” you muttered. “After I got out of college it was hard finding work in my field of study and so I somehow managed to get a job working for EXINERIS. I was grateful for the work to keep me strong of body and sharp of mind, and knowing how I was able to help keep this city lit made me feel a little bit better about not getting my dream job right out of school. Times were really hard.” You fought back a tear and Ignis began to stroke your hair to soothe you. “And then when my condition hit me, I had to run away from all of that, as well as my family and friends. I just wish I could go back home to them, but I don’t know how they would feel about seeing me like this after all this time. I don’t want to put them through that pressure of knowing what I’ve become…”

Ignis could hardly speak for a moment, seeming lost in the despair of your voice. “I can insure that your family be kept safe,” he breathed softly. “We can have the hunters and Glaives keep a watchful eye on them. I assure this for you. I also don’t think that they would react so harshly to seeing you in this state. Believe me when I say this.”

You lifted your head to look at him, the strain and the adoration in his eyes apparent. “I just can’t do that to them, Ignis. I can’t go back, not like this. As of right now that hope is lost. I don’t have a future.”

Ignis’s brows furrowed as he sat up slightly to inspect your face, and the extreme pessimism of your suddenly crass words of yourself seemed to stir him. “Dear, why do you say that? Don’t give up hope. There is always a future.”

“And what future is it you see with me?” You asked him somewhat harshly now as tears trickled down your face. “Look at me, Ignis. I’m a monster. A fiend. People would cower in fear over the sight of this if they knew what I could do. You even said your friends would likely want me dead. And yet, here you are, giving me a chance that I don’t deserve. I…” And gods did it break your heart to say this, “I feel like I am wasting your time. What life can you have with me if this is all I can offer you now? What is going to happen if we can’t get the cure to work? That’s not a future…”

And the tears streamed down your face, your sobs tumbling out of your mouth as you hid your face into the chest of the man who was the only solace you had in this godforsaken world. But with a gentleness of his hand, Ignis cupped your chin and brushed his fingers over your lower lip, pressing down to part your lips and reveal your fangs. He kissed your face, brushing away your tears, and surely you could not deserve someone so good.

“What future do I have?” He began. “There is always a future, no matter what. For you? You have given me that glimmer of light in my darkened trials, Y/N, and I would be damned as a man to walk away from you and let you suffer in the past alone.” He kissed you more firmly now, and with his frame pressing against your body you whimpered at the pressure of his chest and abdominals up against your breasts. “You have given me hope, Y/N. That is the future. And I don’t ever want you to forget that.”

And you cried, your fangs scraping gently along his chest as you wept with happiness, and with your eyes shimmering with adoration of this man who made you feel like you mattered, you sniffled as you brushed your lips along his lips. “Ignis…I…I have just one wish.”

“And what is that, my dear?” he asked you softly.

You inhaled deeply, even though you didn’t need to, and gods if you could blush you would. “I wish I could see the sunrise again. Just one last time. Not the murky, dull sun we see now. The sun how it always used to be. What it feels like to be warmed by it. All that beautiful light. If I can make it that far, if I can survive this and be human again…Will you…will you be there to join me when that happens?”

Ignis’s heart sputtered in his chest, and with him pulling you tightly against his chest, you smelled the scent of a salty tear stream down his scarred cheek.

“Gladly. With everything fiber of my being,” he whispered.

Astrals, was Ignis adamant on fighting not just for the future of the world and the king and for the light to return but for you, and that hope that he had manifested deep within himself stemmed through the repeated trials and errors of the vaccines that were administered to you. Much to your full-fledged trust, there was only one soul whom Ignis shared mentioning of your existence to: Dr. Sania Yeagre, the bright biological engineer who requested initially that sample of blood from you and would be responsible for developing the medication that would provide a cure for those who were infested with the Scourge. You had recalled reading about her research in magazines while you would sit in waiting rooms for doctor’s appointments or while standing in line at the store, and knowing that she was to be working your case and expressed complete interest in studying you and swearing herself to secrecy about your existence made you feel hopeful for the test trials.

When Ignis had returned one evening after Sania ran tests on that first initial blood sample, you were more than startled and shocked at what Ignis relayed to you about the test results. The doctor having initially thought that your given physicality and nature unlike any daemon she had witnessed was proof that you were a prime subject for analyzing and studying for lab testing, her conjectures were correct when reading the results of your “blood” tests. While you lacked any components and antibodies that one would expect, your life force void of all red and white blood cells, platelets, proteins, and salt solutions, there was one factor discovered that made you feel a little less harsh towards yourself: you were not contagious whatsoever and caused no potential threat to spreading the disease to any other life forms. Sania learned such by injecting vermin with a solution using your blood, and after days of analyzing the animals’ behavior, there was not a single change in the creatures whatsoever.

Why this reveal of information made you cry so much, you were not sure, but you were more than certain that it had everything to do with the fact that it would be physically impossible for Ignis to contract the disease from you.

It was much too dangerous to have you be analyzed at the research facility itself, the risk of having another researcher or member of the Crown find you out all too high of a stake and more than Ignis was willing to take. Considering too how vital it was that Sania remain under high-security watch at all times and having her leave the facility during the night hours being a suicide mission, Ignis himself was the one to administer your medication for these test runs. While he was certainly not as experienced in the field as Dr. Yeagre herself, having to serve the Crown all these years and being ready to provide care to his king and companions made Ignis seem like a quasi-doctor himself. Bless the stolen magitek technology that would develop this medicine that he would give you; what would have taken almost a decade to produce a remedy would now only take mere weeks. And so, it was as Ignis arrived one evening with his medical bag in hand and his expression cast with apprehension that you did your absolute best to remain composed as he sat you down on the couch and kissed your head.

“We are going to try this, my dear,” he said softly as he gave your hand a squeeze. He pulled out from his bag a needle filled with a silvery, viscous fluid, and the sight of it alone made you feel queasy. He took a second needle out filled with a vile, yellow mixture, and titling your head to look at him, Ignis took note of your curious countenance and sighed. “Providing you with the remedy is as simple as a needled prick. However, it is unfortunate that we do not know what shall happen to you as result. We of course hope for positive results, but there is a likelihood that nothing will happen as a result. This,” he said as he held up the needle with the yellow fluid, “will be used as a counter in case you have an adverse reaction. We pray to the Astrals that this doesn’t happen.”

You looked down at both needles and up to his face, and despite how absolutely terrified you were in this given instant of not knowing the possible outcome of this test run, you still managed to put a smile on your face. “I understand, Ignis,” you said calmly as you began to stroke his hand and then bring it up to your face to nuzzle it. “This is how the medical stuff works anyways, right? What other choice do we have?”

Perhaps it was Ignis who was more frightened at the outcome as he could only look at you with complete and utter pain in his eyes, but nevertheless he nodded. Massaging your arm gently where he would insert the needed, he took out his kit he began to prepare you by cleaning your arm and sanitizing your flesh. This gesture once again made your heart ache, and swallowing hard you felt your eyes go wide as he brought the needle down to puncture the skin.

A horrid thought came to mind, one that you could not refrain from expressing.

“Ignis?” You said quietly, stopping him from moving.

“Y-Yes, Y/N?” He asked, the strain in his voice apparent.

“If…If something happens to me with this…if I react in a way that I shouldn’t or if I try to hurt you, please, stop me. Don’t be afraid to do what you have to do.”

He gulped sharply, and for a moment the emotional side of his brain fought with the logical tactician that helped lead the Crown. He was speechless, but watching his Adam’s apple shift in his throat as he swallowed, he nodded to you and inserted the needle.

You hissed. It burned. It burned badly, and you could have sworn the pain was enough to make your insides set on fire. Yet, after a few moments, a few minutes, nothing happened.

No change in your flesh. No beating of your heart. No changing of your eyes to the color they once were.

Whether Ignis sighed out of relief or disappointment in failure, you would not know, but nevertheless you pressed your lips to his and nipped him gently, nuzzling your nose against his for reassurance.

“It’s ok, Ignis…we’ll keep trying. We’ll try again.”

And kept trying you did, but with every attempt producing different results. On some occasions such as the first you experienced no reaction what so ever. In others, your skin would prickle and burn and you would lay upon the floor clawing at your flesh as if to tear it from your frame. Other trials left you very much like you would be in your states of heat, and it was all Ignis could do to succumb to your tears in wanting to be mounted. On a disturbing and frightening instance you lashed out at the tactician, your fangs bared and gnashing at him as if ready to kill, and much to Ignis’s aversion he had to strike you down and knock you out, restraining you with chains while he could administer the counter-medicine.

But it was the cases of illness that befell you that shattered Ignis’s spirit the most of all. Upon administering the vaccine, all would seem fine and he would take note of a slight pinkening of your skin when all of a sudden you began to lurch and vomit up black fluid. He hastily lead you to the bathroom as he watched you helplessly expunge the dark Scourge from your system, him all the while holding back your hair and stroking your spine while you sobbed in discomfort and disgust over what he had to see. And yet he never left your side for one second as he waited for the affects of the antidote to kick in as you rode out your bouts of sickness.

“I’m sorry, Ignis,” you would cry as you became well again, and you clutched at his chest while you carefully fed upon him to help you regain your strength. “I’m sorry I keep failing. But I’m not going to give up. We have to keep trying.”

_Let me see that sunset with you. Gods, let us see the dawn return together…_

Perhaps hope would be a little closer than you thought.

Thus began that fifth month after all of these happenings had transpired. On this particularly rainy night you paced around the kitchenette, anxiously waiting for Ignis to arrive to the den after he attended some rather dire business. His tone serious with you as he had left that morning, you could not help but feel the notion that something was to arise, that something was about to leave you all but thrown off your feet. Your skin was irritated, the hairs on your arms standing on end and your claws were unsheathed as you stalked anxiously around the room, your blood boiling hot as you tried to calm your weary mind.

 _Ignis, what is taking you so much longer than usual?_ You queried anxiously as you paced, your blackened eyes darting to the window for any sign of him. _What is it that happened today? Is everything going to be alright?_

Surely your questions would be answered as your nostrils flared at his approaching scent, and with the click of the window latch the tactician now appeared within the windowsill. With eyes broadened you rushed over to help him in, shutting the window behind him as he sat down his bag. Before you could even open your mouth to speak he pulled you tightly into his arms and pressed his mouth to the top of your head, and growling instinctually at the arrival of your mate, you buried your face into his chest and began to nip at his pectorals through his rain-soaked shirt.

“Oh gods, Ignis, I was getting worried about you,” you mewled as you nuzzled his dampened chest. “I was beginning to panic and I-“ But as you looked up into his face you were startled. His eyes were angst-ridden and filled with trepidation, and with parted lips it was as though he could barely formulate words. “I-Ignis? What’s the matter? What happened today?” You asked him impatiently.

He seemed breathless, and taking a hold of your hand he brought you over the couch to sit down, and it was almost impossible for you to ignore the distinct smell of stress within his sweat and the slamming of his heart within his chest.

“We found it,” he said breathlessly as he attempted to keep his senses in tact. “We’ve found the lair.”

_Gods…what…what is he saying?_

“Ignis, w-what do you mean?” You quickly asked him, and if your heart could flutter within your chest it would right now.

He ran his hand through his wet hair. “The daemon. The daemon we’ve been tracking. We think we have found it after all this time.”

“Oh gods...are you serious?” You replied incredulously as you gripped the couch for support. “But how…how…where…”

“We’ve been looking in the wrong place all this time,” Ignis answered eagerly as he gestured toward the map which you had painstakingly been marking all this time. “The daemon lair…it’s not even within the walls of the city at all like we have been expecting all this time. But all the work you’ve done in tracing its tracks, through all of this we were able to find a clue as to where the grounds of the perpetrator are located.”

“I-Ignis, I can’t believe it. But how did you manage to figure it out? How in Eos did you-“

“I shall tell you that shortly, my sweet,” he quickly cut in, and the sudden rashness of the advisor threw you off. “But there is even a more pressing and urgent manner as to why it is so important that we found this. Because it is only just today that Dr. Yeagre realized the errors in her conjectures as to what she has been doing wrong with the cure.”

Your skin prickled at this, and for the worst you felt your cold, dead heart sink. “Do you…do you mean that there isn’t one?”

“Oh Astrals, no,” Ignis said breathlessly, kissing you now for reassurance. “Not at all. The opposite. For you see, Sania has realized in truth now that one particular and absolutely essential component to the antidote has been missing for its success.”

“….and what is that, Ignis…?”

“The blood of the daemon which shares your breed.”

All this time. All this time the very last hint of hope to your cure and it had been running from you all this time. The cold, cruel irony of it all, but more desperately than ever you began to cling back onto that hope.

“Oh gods, Ignis,” you cried, a sudden joy overwhelming you and causing tears to burst forth from your eyes. “This could be it. Astrals, soon enough I could be well again!”

“Sooner than you anticipate, my dear,” he said with strain in his voice. “And I will be the one track down the lair to retrieve what we need.”

Silence. You could only stare at him in awe of his bravery.

“No. You aren’t going alone. I’m going with you.”

“I cannot allow that, Y/N! I cannot have you risk your safety should we encounter other hunters and the Glaives by chance on the expedition and-“

“This is just as much my fight as it is yours. Even more so. I’m not going to just sit back and let this murderer be the cause for me to live in the dark anymore. We are to endure this fight together, me by your side protecting you like you’ve kept me safe all these months. I’ve made that promise to you and I’m never going to break it.”

You were clutching onto him with your nails tearing at his shirt, and with tears streaming down your face you brought your lips to the base of his throat and braced yourself. Your determination and stubbornness in your words moved him, and remembering that promise made him all the more concede. He wrapped his hands into your hair as you nipped at his throat, and with pricking his flesh just enough you began to lap at the blood that dribbled forth. “V-Very well then,” he murmured with a rather blissful and defeated smile as you suckled upon his skin, and he very much could not deny that very promise he made to you. “And I shall willingly have you by my side as we take care of this plight once and for all.”

You removed your mouth from his throat, your eyes blazing into his you placed your claws upon his chest. “When do we leave? When do we end this?”

“Tomorrow night,” he answered. “Tomorrow night is our rare chance for success. Just before dusk breaks the horizon. We shall depart no sooner, no later.”

“I’m ready, Ignis. And I won’t back down.”

And so the following day passed all too quickly, each passing hour brimmed with preparation and studying of maps and inventorying of resources as you and Ignis set forth your plan before the umbral sun began to make its rest in the sky. Leaving your den together with your gear in hand and stepping onto the Insomnian streets as one, you followed Ignis with extreme caution through the backstreets and abandoned alleyways to a location which was all but unknown to you in attempts to be avoid being seen or followed by hunters or attracting the attention of the daemons.

After fifteen minutes or so of hushed travel, avoiding the attention of an occasional Gargoyle and Necromancer, you arrived at an abandoned warehouse that had not seen use in years.

“I did not feel safe drawing the attention towards your quarters of what you are about to hear,” Ignis spoke softly as he led you around the backside of the building. “Thus this is why I have lead you this far away from your home. But from here we shall be able to make way towards our location without qualms, as I am more prepared to flee past the daemons that stand within our path.”

And as you rounded the corner, you felt your eyes go wide; there in sight, balancing upon a kickstand was a vintage motorcycle that was all the worse for wear but ready for whatever road it would travel.

You gasped at the sight of it, and suddenly envisioning the tactician seated upon its leather seat made your nostrils flare and heat shoot down into your loins. But casting aside your desires at the direness of the moment, you turned your gaze back to your mate.

“The road ahead is perilous, but we shall be more than ready with all of our intel and preparations,” he murmured, and taking a hold of your hands, he pulled you into his chest and gave you the most passionate and tender kiss you could have ever felt. You whined, your chest clenching in your breast and your lips quivering upon his, feeling suddenly ever so afraid as if this would be your last moment alive together. But pulling back to cup your chin, he smiled down at you with esteem in his eyes, and that was all you needed to help give you the courage you needed to step forward into the oncoming night. “Are you ready to end this, once and for all, my dearest?”

“Yes Ignis. Yes.” You whispered, your eyes blazing with purpose as you kissed him back softly on the lips.

And so you seated yourself behind Ignis and wrapped your arms tightly around his waist, and for just a moment, just a second you felt as you though your heart tremored within your chest. With a roar of the motorcycle engine and the blaring light of the daemon-warding headlights streaming across the pavement, you and Ignis set out into the mysterious dusk of the unknown that would test your bravery and try the hope of your future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a different approach to this chapter and thought "summarizing" the relationship between this duo would better showcase how their relationship has developed. Considering that this time period in this chapter takes place over the course of four months, it would have been exhausting describing every little single thing that happens. I thought the moments I chose to focus on in more detail would show the strength of their affection for one another without having to overly explain everything.
> 
> I would like to make some commentary on the Reader here. As I was writing this chapter I did not really realize at first how horribly tragic her scenario is and I give her so much credit in the world for being brave. Consider this: she had already up to this point dealt with the Scourge for eights months prior to meeting Ignis. She has been coping with the fear of her fate as well as not knowing if she would ever be well again. She was living alone in less than glamorous conditions and she separated herself from her family to keep them safe. Her entire world literally is succumbed to the darkness as well as her cooping herself up in her quarters because she is afraid of hurting others. How many of us could truly withstand this life for that long? And then Astrals bless Ignis who comes along and helps give her back some of that sanity and hope she had been missing in her life. Little does our Reader know though just how much Ignis needs her in his life as well...
> 
> I have thus far LOVED writing the Reader though. Considering she is in fact a daemon, being able to incorporate those animalistic qualities in her behavior has been a blast and has given me lots of leeway to use terms and describe blush-worthy scenarios in ways that I normally wouldn't do. She is fierce and sexual but has a heart of gold and is vastly intelligent and I love when those types of personas blend. I don't think Iggy minds too much either ;)


	4. The Undertaking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a rather short chapter compared to the others (how unlike me, I know!). This section you are about to read was originally meant to be combined with Part Five, but when I had my dear friends *nikashepard* and *nightsywolf* beta-read the story, it was suggested to me that I end at this part in which you will leave off with. And so, I apologize in advance if you hate a good cliffhanger. XD However, the upcoming Part Five will be all the worthwhile and so please be patient!
> 
> It is hard for me to give opening notes on my thoughts in fear of spoiling anything that will happen, and so I will leave my remarks at this: "It's always darkest before the dawn."
> 
> As always, comments and feedback and discussions are always appreciated and I love being able to talk about your thoughts on my work! Please do enjoy!
> 
> *You can find me on Tumblr as missyunie!

_And so, you built a life on trust_

_Though it starts, with love and lust_

_And when your house, begins to rust_

_Oh, it's just, metal and dust_

_We argue, we don't fight_

_We argue, we don't fight_

_And all foundation that we made_

_Built to last, they disintegrate_

_And when your house begins to rust_

_Oh, it's just, metal and dust_

_-London Grammar – “Metal and Dust”_

Could your lifeless and icy heart tremor it would. For all of your years of existence, human or daemon, there had never been a moment of your life that had thus brought you such fear of the unknown of what was to come. With your shivering arms wrapped tightly around Ignis’s frame as you sped across the highways past the Ostium Gorge, the abandoned Hammerhead station that still lay remote due to lack of power, past the towering hills of the Longwythe Peak, and through the dusty lands of the Weaverwilds, you could not help but wonder if this last sight of glimmer of the hazy light in the sky were to be your last.

All these months of investigating and research. All these months of patience and labor and hard work and tears and sweat shed. All of your culminating hope now put to the test tonight.

_Astrals, let me be strong. Let me be brave. I can’t ruin this. The sake of the future rests within our hands tonight._

The brilliance of Ignis, the Crownsguard, Glaives, and hunters led you to your location tonight just north of the Keycatrich Trench where the apparent culprits lay at large. The startling revelation of who (or what) you had been searching for all this time resided nowhere near close to where you had anticipated was still hard for you to grasp, but it was in light of the most recent attack in which Ignis and his comrades were able to narrow down information and instill in you that all your hard work of research had not been for nothing.

It was a solitary piece of evidence left at the scene of the crime, ever so small and peculiar: a valuable stone which could only be mined from the hills of the Keycatrich, most likely having been dislodged from the tread of a shoe. With the geography and landmarks within Lucis having been analyzed, there was only one spot within the Keycatrich where this stone could have originated, and conveniently located next to this mine was an abandoned warehouse that may have likely been a storehouse for this resource.

“Ignis, this…this all just doesn’t make sense to me!” You pondered as the two of you prepped before your departure. You studied the map of Insomnia which you had painstakingly marked, and even though you would have believed every damn word that the tactician told you, even yet, there was something rather ludicrous in what you were about to set out to do. “The time stamps on the murders. The ages of these poor souls…Why on earth would the killer or its pack be willing to make such a trek all the way to Insomnia? It’s so far away from its den!”

Ignis sighed deeply as he checked the inventory of his artillery within his bag. “Do recall my dear that the mainland of Lucis is rather barren and it is quite seldom that we see voyagers making the risk to travel between the towns after daylight hours. Lestallum is too heavily guarded and given its direct proximity to the EXINERIS plant and the power source that lights the continent, the lighting is far too prominent for the daemons to comfortably near it. Not to mention the hunters seek their headquarters there. Unfortunately we do not have the same respite as here in Insomnia, despite our intel and forces. The city is far too large for the Crown to truly safeguard it as we wish. And so, it appears as though these daemons are limited in their options and thus seek desperation enough to make feast here.”

You didn’t like the sound of that at all. This further proved that there was something more to be reckoned with in regards to this fiend and its pack. It knew where to search. It knew how to get here. And clearly it would risk its wellbeing to kill in order to survive.

The motorcycle’s engine came to a halt alongside the exterior walls of the Formouth Garrison. It would be a slight trek from here as to not attract the beast in which you sought to slay, and thanking the Astrals with your good timing, there was just enough light left in the sky before the daemons would come out to play to ensure your hike would be somewhat safe from peril. As you two disembarked from the vehicle, your hand bracing itself upon the seat as you looked out into the horizon, you couldn’t help but feel your apprehension spike once again as you smelled the tension emanating from Ignis’s body. You knew at this moment he was rather much feeling an overwhelmingly particular sense of guilt; despite your daemonic ailment, while you surely were not prevented from wandering outdoors during the light of day, nevertheless the contact of the murky sun’s rays upon your flesh caused you great discomfort as if needles were prickling harshly over your skin. Currently covered in a jacket with a hood, however, you were able to bear the discomfort for now, and for all a good cause.

“Your time stamping on the attacks has not all been in vain though, Y/N,” Ignis had continued during your deliberation back at your quarters. “Upon analyzing the time frames, we deducted that with the arrival of the culprit at the scene of the crimes, it would need a fair amount of time to journey to get to the Crown City. Assuming it moves on foot, we would conjecture that it leaves its lair close to the proximity of the time in which we shall arrive tonight. If our timing is faultless, we can catch the offender off guard, extract its blood before it bears witness to our assault, and then apprehend the beast before it shall cause harm to another life. Unfortunately,” he paused, taking a hold of your shoulders and kissing you on the head, “this does mean that we must leave during the hours which do not agree with your biology. I am most sorry, Y/N…”

Timing was of the essence though and so your pain would have to endure, at least for a while. May the gods allow you to not screw this up at the expense of your comfort.

You wrapped your jacket around your body more snuggly, wincing only slightly at the irritation of the light touching what flesh of yours was exposed. More importantly, as you inhaled deeply you felt your nostrils flare at the scent of your mate. To an observer’s eye, one would applaud the man for his presentation of composure and posture, but for you, you could not ignore the smell of adrenaline coursing through his bloodstream and the hint of anxiety in his sweat.

_Is he….is Ignis frightened?_

The advisor surely had more than enough years of experience backing his skills and prowess as a member of the Crownsguard, and yet, at the end of the day, he was just a man trying to survive in a world gone mad so he could save his king. Even more so, your sharp eyesight could not ignore the way his tall frame trembled as he looked out into the horizon.

“I-Ignis?” You said softly, and far off in the distance the doleful and heartbreaking cry of a lone Sabertusk shattered your stability of heart. “Are you ok?”

He turned his attention away from the skyline and looked upon you, his gaze emitting a twinkle of hope and affection in the darkening of the dusk. “Yes, my dear,” he replied back, and taking a few steps into your direction he pulled you tightly against his frame. “Just reflecting upon our course of action. All shall be well. Have faith and we shall find success.”

His heartbeat betrayed him though, and yet you kept silent.

“I still am feeling a little weary though,” you remarked sadly as you reached up to touch his face, the warmth of his cheeks soaking into your icy hand. “Not including me of course, but I still don’t understand why you are doing this all alone. You know how dangerous this is. You’ve read the reports more times than you can count. And not that I don’t have faith in you because I know and have witnessed with my own eyes what you are capable of, but is this really the smartest thing to be going into our attacker’s refuge with no back up and without fully knowing what we are up against?”

Ignis gave you a squeeze and kissed you on the head. “I know you are worried, Y/N, but I can assure you that we will be more than prepared to face what it is we’ll discover. I do have you by my side after all and so that brings my soul to ease knowing that you are my partner in this. And besides, knowing that this daemon bears the same strengths as you, it would be rather suicidal to have a troupe of men embark with us, as the daemon would surely detect us all from a mile away. I am also not willing to risk the lives of more men than possible.” You looked up at Ignis with your brows furrowed, not convinced in his logic whatsoever. But as you were about to open your mouth to protest, he continued. “That is why we have this,” he added, now taking out a rather small vial from his jacket pocket. “A serum that will temporarily mask our scents from the daemon to catch it off guard. The effectiveness of its potency is very brief, which is all the more reason that our success depends upon the brevity of the mission.”

You looked down at the vial with lips parted, and suddenly you couldn’t help but panic. Much of your sense of reassurance in being able to protect Ignis as your mate wholly depended on your ability to smell him, and musing over how that ability would be temporarily stinted broke you deep inside.

“Ignis…I…”

“You shall not lose sight of me. I shall continue to remain by your side. I promise. I shall not leave you.”

You shut your mouth and merely nodded. He was known as the tactician for a reason. Now was not the time to question him.

There was somberness in the air as you and he stared into each other’s eyes, and a part of you was screaming at you to relish in every second in this solitary moment. But with your nostrils flaring as you combated a tear from parting from your eyes, you placed your hands upon his chest and leaned up to kiss his lips. Savoring his smell and placing your mouth to his throat, your lips ghosting over the warm flesh for just a moment more, you knew it was time to go.

“Let us be off, my sweet…”

_Astrals, please give us the strength…I have to do this. I have to be tough._

You walked and walked, neither one of you saying a word as second by second the sky got a little bit murkier and a lot darker, the shadows of the trees and hills dissipating into the blackness. And still, you were safe from the daemons. After climbing a series of hills, you looked down from the hillside with parted lips to see your intended target: the warehouse in which you hoped to face the monster that terrorized the lives of so many innocents, standing ominously within the dusty plains. With Ignis giving you a look, he pulled from his jacket two vessels of the serum. Frowning at him, your eyes darted back and forth between his eyes and his hand, and with his gaze pleading with you, you sighed. You taking the vial from his hand, you each ingested the serum and within seconds you found yourself wanting to shriek with despair. His odor that had given you all the comfort of the world and the reassurance that he existed in the flesh was now gone, and almost as if you had been blinded you clutched onto his hand for support before he could take another step.

He stopped and turned around to look at you, a deep pain in his eyes as he read your face.

“Ignis, just…just one more thing,” you whispered, and your barely inaudible voice cracked.

“Yes, my sweet?” He murmured back, his clutch upon your hand tightening.

You wanted to say so much and yet you were lost for words. You wanted to tell him about your favorite song. You wanted to know more about his camping excursions and his favorite recipes. You wanted to share with him stories of high school and how you almost dropped out because of a boy who broke your heart. You wanted to hear about every adventure that this man subsisted through, every test and trial he survived to become the man that he was now. But no. Not now. It wasn’t the time. It wasn’t the place. And no matter how much dread was pumping through your dead veins, your mouth wouldn’t allow you to utter all you wished to say.

And so, with his hand still within yours, you lifted it up to your mouth, rubbed it softly against your cheek, nipped his fingers, and took a deep breath.

“I have your back,” was all you could muster.

“And I yours, my dear. Always”

You had reached the smaller than expected warehouse, an eeriness bristling over your skin as you began to smell the air for any indication of the foe which you would face. Yet, there was nothing though, save for the stench of a nightly grazing Garula nearby. You wanted to growl, now rather agitated for whatever reason or another, hoping in this case your sense of smell would benefit you in this viable mission. You had been more than familiar with the smell of other daemons, and yet here now, mysteriously there were no remnants of the odor of the perpetrator in which you hunted.

_I don’t like this. I don’t like this one bit. Could Ignis and the Crown have been wrong about their conjectures?_

“Rather peculiar,” Ignis whispered as his hand clasped upon the door to the warehouse, and the sudden sound of his voice almost startled you. “It’s locked.”

But you too grasped upon the handle, and very much so, the door would not allow you access to the inside.

_Why the hell would a daemon lock a door?_

You searched the exterior of the structure to find the other door on the opposite also in the same condition, and so Ignis retrieved from his jacket a lock-pick which he conveniently carried and carefully finagled the handle to unlock and allow you entrance. Cautiously with your nostrils widening once more, you and Ignis made your way into the darkness of the building. With your eyes darting around you examined the interior, and surely enough, far along the left side of the wall were crates brimmed to the top with the stone that had been left as evidence back within the Crown City. There was also some excavation equipment along with a rather old rusty car that had seen better days, and other than some miner’s paraphernalia that surely hadn’t been utilized in over a decade, you observed nothing out of the ordinary.

_No…No, this isn’t right. This isn’t right at all. Ignis can’t be wrong. There is no way._

Your blackened eyes kept darting over to the tactician as if in fear that he would disappear at any moment, and once more the distinct pounding of his heart deafened your own hearing. He too sensed the cause for your trepidation. Something wasn’t right. With your nostrils fluttering once again and you looking down at your hands to see your claws extending in defense, that recognizable aroma of that Garula tickled you nostrils once again.

You sniffed, and Ignis turned to look at you as you inspected the air with your expert olfactory senses. You followed what you smelled. Step by step, you cautiously made your way across the warehouse in the direction of the scent, Ignis trailing right behind you and guarding your back. Your eyes widened. There was a door before you to what you presumed to be the office of the facility, and as you neared it, the stench only got stronger. Stronger. Stronger yet. Ignis was in front of you now as you motioned your claw towards the door, and with him reaching for the handle and readying himself to draw his weapons, in one graceful motion he pried open the squeaky door.

But it was the stench of what you smelled and saw that sent your skin crawling and the cold dead heart in your chest sinking into the pit of your stomach.

You should have known. You had known the smell of this blood all too well. You knew the smell of old blood and young blood and fresh blood and new blood. But what you thought what you were smelling was not so. It was not a Garula outside in the dark of the night on the dusty plains but _inside_ , and not even a living quadrupedal. For here, laying within the confines on this tiny office floor were scattered Garula hides caked in old blood that had been haphazardly stripped from the bodies of the animals to make way for bedding within this little room.

This daemon sought comfort in its nest. This was its bed. And this told you this brute was certainly a little bit more human than you thought.

And that damn smell? It led you right into its trap.

Your fiendish instincts sensed it. With your flesh creeping like crawling Hundlegs your eyes quickly cast themselves upwards to the solitary window, and through the glass windowpane the dusk had dissipated to allow the darkness of night to stand forth upon the stage.

The daemons would appear.

And so would your foe.

_No…no…_

“Y/N, we need to hide. Now is the time. We-“

But was it a sad, cruel fate that would leave you seconds off your timing? Did you in your fear of losing this man and mate of yours that you adored so much hinder you and Ignis from reaching your target location at a moment too late? For just as you and Ignis turned around to hide and prepare yourselves to strike at what would materialize from miasma into a solid form, a piercing, blood-curdling chorus of shrieks coursed through the air and reverberated off the walls. With your eyes snapping up and your fangs now bared, you readied yourself for the fighters that readied themselves and stepped into the ring.

A horrified cry tore up through your throat as Ignis growled and brandished his polearm, ready to strike. You could not fathom the horrors of what you saw as you stared up into those tall rafters in the darkness. Three gargantuan figures of at least seven feet tall each, humanoid and daemonic and nothing and everything all at once as their own elongated fangs dangled from their widening jaws and their eyes raging black and red just like yours. Their claws were tenfold in length to yours whereas razor like protuberances jutted from the backs of their elbows and a scaly tail trailed behind their towering frames.

But what made these beasts the most horrifying of all was the overly distinct and attractive features of two men and one woman that was all too impossible to disregard. Their faces almost beautiful and grotesque all at once, you could not help but shiver in repugnance and dismay at the Scourge that spewed out of their open gaping mouths as they bared their fangs at you. With sharpened talons jutting forth from the boots which still somehow remained upon their feet, it was with a horrifying realization that you quickly took note of their attire of weathered fatigues and leathers and the glint of a flat silver medal that dangled around each of their necks.

All of your questions had been answered within an instant. How the killer was able to evade detection all this time. How it was able to perfectly map out where to kill, when to murder, and who to slaughter. The timing of their onslaughts impeccable. The ability to remain on the run and leave survivors of their attacks bewildered and charmed and all but lost. There could be only one sole profession other than those of the Crown who could possess such skills in knowing how to pursue and slaughter.

A member of the Hunters HQ themselves.

_Oh gods…these men…that woman…the dog tags on their necks. They were once hunters!_

“Steady yourself!” Ignis yelled next to you, readying his polearm to shield you as he came to the same deduction as you. “We only have one chance at this! Do not falter!”

You wanted to sob. The pungent apprehension in his perspiration. The thrashing and throbbing and hammering of his frightened heart within his chest was all but earsplitting as you steadied yourself for the oncoming brigade.

But with one quick glance at your mate at your side, the companion and lover you swore to protect until the very end of your existence, the sight of Ignis was all the courage you needed to fight and see this task through to the end. And so you dodged an advance as the darker-haired male daemon struck at you, you nearly just evading a swipe of his razorlike claws as he growled and gnashed his fangs at you. His bloodred orbs beheld you with hatred, him viewing you as an abomination to his species, a renegade who betrayed the breed’s continuance and survival, and by gods by the way he lunged at you and screamed his declaration of purpose you swore you would surely meet your end this evening.

But Astrals were you not about to let this plague of the night rid you of the hope that you so desperately pursued. You would survive and you would see that sunrise once more.

You would not stand idle, and so you fought back. Despite your tiny frame pathetic in comparison to this ghastly humanoid you quarreled, the survivor in you would not concede defeat for an instant. While he may have been the stronger and stouter of you two, the analytical human side of your brain was just enough of a driving force to help you calculate your next move. Leaping with immense strength within your powerful thighs, you landed upon a ledge up above to draw your attention towards the daemon who for but moment glanced at the man who fought as your ally.

You had never been one to doubt Ignis’s abilities while you partook in your nightly expeditions side by side. His impressiveness as a warrior was only slightly shadowed by his intellect as a strategist, but nevertheless you had never seen such formidability in the motions of any other human being. For just a second before your agitator struck you up high, you watched with nostrils flaring and claws quavering as Ignis managed to summon forth his daggers and kick them gracefully towards the second male daemon who all but shrieked in agony as the blades pierced through the chest of the once human hunter; with your breast clenching painfully for just a moment, you saw a solitary glimmer of the human that once was shine within the black orbs of the daemon. The creature wailed in pain, clawing at its torso and gnashing its teeth as it struggled to yank forth the steel from its chest. Before it could react to anything else, Ignis high jumped into the air, over the figure of the female daemon, and landed behind the male. With your fangs bared at what you were about to witness, the smell of the advisor more piquant than ever as he focused on his assault, Ignis reached into his front pocket and pulled forth a needle. With Ignis jutting the pointy object into the spine of the daemon, the beast yowled in absolute agony with an air of surprise as you watched the blackish vicious fluid known as its blood being drawn into the syringe. How the royal advisor was able to do such with inhuman ease and fluency, your daemon mind would never comprehend, but with him summoning his lance once again and jutting it into the back of the skull of the daemon, the beast screamed its finality of defeat as Ignis yanked the needle from its spine and simultaneously pulled the polearm ouf of the skull of the daemon.

Your chest swelled with pride as this all had transpired within mere seconds, but as you quickly shifted your attention back to your own attacker at hand, it was the shrieking of the other male daemon that sent your focus off kilter as he hastily grappled you from the rafters and sent you tumbling down onto the cement floor below.

Your head gyrated, the blow more than you anticipated as you wrestled with the male upon the ground, and with your own fangs bared as he clenched and tore his teeth downwards at you, you slashed at his face with your much tinier claws as you attempted to ward him off. But gods, did you feel like you were failing in your fight as the much stronger male howled and screamed as he pinned you down to floor, and screeching back at him you could only pray that your war cry would threaten him in the slightest.

But as you opened your mouth to gnash at the male who lowered his jaws to tear at your jugular, it was another penetrating cry that now reverberated off of the steel walls of the warehouse. With your eyes darting away from your opponent for such a second, it was with a startling realization that as your eyes fell upon the female did you understand the stark meaning behind her sudden calls.

If you heart could stop, it would. But living or not, your heart broke in the strangest of ways all the same.

She was surely a daemon, long lost and past the point of no return in her transition, and yet there was something so distinctly human in the way this grotesque yet petrifyingly beautiful chimera of beast and woman hovered over her fallen comrade and shrieked and tore at her hair and grasped at the corpse that was slowly dissipating into miasma. It was something you knew all too painfully, not from experience but from instinct. She was not merely moaning at the pulverizing loss of one of her own species, one less spawn of her kind to plague the world with and continue her breed. No, she was grieving for more than that. For as she clutched at the face of the male which Ignis had viscously slaughtered, the black sludge of Scourge that was her tears coursing down her inhumanly beautiful face and her countenance contorted with misery, it was this instant you realized that she had lost something so much greater in her own wretched existence.

The figure that was slowly dissolving between her fingertips was her mate that she had chosen to spend her life with. The mate who would implant his seed inside her. The mate whom she would bear his offspring and raise his brood proudly.

And she? She was now alone.

That same fear that had had come to consume you all too much.

But this drove you to fight harder as you dodged the razored edge of his elbow, you striving to survive for the sake of your own mate. With you slashing once more and kicking at the male, you had knocked him off your frame for just one moment which gave you the right opening to yank from your own jacket a needle. From across the room Ignis saw his own opening in the female’s despair, and with a pain in his eyes behind his visors that you couldn’t quite all but comprehend in the heat of this moment, he too pulled forth a second needle and stabbed it through the neck of the female. She was all too helpless and hopeless to care as she screamed in pain, all of her drive to survive sucked from her dead-soul, and with the syringe filled to its brim of her blood and the task completed, Ignis summoned forth his dagger, sliced through the throat of the female, and she was no more.

The male saw that all was lost, and distracted by the hapless cry of his femme comrade, you succinctly and simultaneously shoved the needle into his chest and your claws through his throat. But all the while, the beast never fought back. His fangs were bared yet his jaw was slack. His dreadful claws were drawn and yet his arms now hung limp at his sides. His eyes were bloodred and yet he gazed at you with the most hauntingly sterile eyes that left the hairs on your flesh prickling upwards. With one last final look into your own terror-struck eyes as in attempt to plead with you for his own sake, he finally accepted his defeat as you pulled forth the needle from his body and he collapsed to the floor, his body quickly dissipating into a cloud of purple miasma.

The room was silent. A wind blew over the fields and rattled the exterior frame of the warehouse, and with the sound startling you, for but a moment longer your adrenaline saturated blood obscured your focus on the scene at hand. You looked down at your claws to see the remnants of Scourge from the throat of the male daemon soiling your palms, and with your stomach lurching with disgust at the sight, it was with your nostrils flaring and your consciousness clouded did you realize just what the hell exactly happened here.

With your mouth hanging open and your chest heaving, it was with the smell of sweat wafting into your nostrils did your eyes widen and dart across the room to see Ignis who was equally staring back at your with panic in his eyes.

“A-Astrals, Y/N,” he choked as his posture slowly slackened, the pumping of his blood pounding in your eardrums, but before he could even make motion to move towards you, you darted hastily into his arms. You were suddenly sobbing, a happiness enveloping you at the sight of seeing and hearing and smelling him alive, and almost knocking him off his feet your buried your face into his chest and let the tears fall freely.

“Oh gods, Ignis! Ignis!” You wept, your claws tearing at the back of his jacket as you held him as securely as possible. “Astrals, it’s over. It’s finally over. The murders. The p-people. We saved them. Oh gods Ignis, we finally did it. And I’m so glad you are alright!”

He held onto you tightly, one hand snaking up your back while the other grasped gently upon the strands of your hair. He was speechless, you seeming to have said everything that was on his mind, and yet by the way he trembled with his arms around you and with the wetness of his own tears dampening your forehead, you could not help but feel that there was something daunting he had left unsaid.

“Gods, am I most jubilant that you are alright too, my sweet,” he murmured, kissing the top of your head and clutching onto you like a lost child, and with your nostrils flaring and your fangs extending slightly at the warmth of his frame that was pressed up against yours, you lifted your head from his chest and nudged his face upwards with your nose.

How could any man be so beautiful and breathtaking? So wonderous and valorous? You hastily scanned his face, taking note of each of the scars, the sternness of his eyebrows, the soft parting of his lips and those beauty marks and the lush green of his eyes. Gods, did you study that face out of fear that you could forget it.

And so you kissed him. You kissed him passionately and feverishly as if it was your last, and your tears of joy were streaming down your face as he trembled against you and whimpered your name between kisses, and never in your life would you ever want to part with this mate that made your existence fulfilled.

You were shuddering as you clutched onto him for support, and all of a sudden his aroma became too much to bear, his pheromones blurring your senses and his adrenaline-laced sweat driven on by his need to survive making your lip quiver with hunger. You whimpered as your mind lost the battle with your body, your hands shakily unbuttoning the top of his jacket and revealing slightly the curvature of his clavicle revealed from his v-neck shirt.

“Did I…did I do a good job?” You asked almost childishly as if seeking need of his approval, and gripping onto his shirt you pulled the fabric down to reveal the curvature of his upper pectorals.

_Control yourself. It’s not the place for this. But Astrals how I want him. Astrals how much I need him. Astrals how much I lo-_

“Oh _gods_ , you did my sweet. You did _splendidly_ ,” your lover murmured as he pressed you closer to him, and it was now he who was crying upon realizing he lived to see another day with you by his side, that hope still lingering upon the horizon. All the while, as you slowly stood up on your tippy toes and placed your mouth upon his chest, Ignis did not for one second stop you, his hands grabbing onto your back as both your desires began to overtake you. You couldn’t control it. You couldn’t if you tried and nor could Ignis as he pressed your face to his chest.

It was all too much as your teeth gently sunk into the flesh over his breastbone, your instinct to feed outweighing all else as he held you tightly, his blood your reward for success as you embraced one another in the warehouse that could have been your graves. He whimpered and hissed with pleasure, his bated breaths tumbling out of those wonderfully parted lips and you whined with delight in response, the flavor of his life force satiating your battle-driven lust beyond all compare. And yet, you mustered enough control to pull yourself away for just a second to look up into his eyes, the corner of your mouth stained with blood as you managed to congregate your thoughts to speak.

“Oh Ignis I…I….”

A blaring of headlights from outside.

A slam of a door.

A chorus of voices.

The distinct musk of warrior and man and soldier.

_Oh…oh gods…gods no._

Ignis’s eyes suddenly widened with terror as he gaped and looked down at your face, and never in your whole time of knowing the man had you ever seen him so unprepared for what was about to transpire.

“A-Astrals…the hunters…!” He quickly grabbed a hold of you, jolting you back into reality as his fingertips pressed harshly into your shoulders. “Q-Quickly, Y/N! HIDE!”

Your instincts gave you no moment of hesitation as you swiftly leapt into the rafters, you climbing up as high as you possibly could to the darkest corners of the building. With uncontrollable tears now streaming down your face once again, it was all you could do to not lose your grip upon the bars and beams and slabs of wood as you made yourself invisible to the human eye.

Could your heart beat, it would, beat with the pure panic of the repercussions of what might become apparent this instant now that Ignis was caught standing below all by himself with the mark of your fangs upon his chest. The tactician was all too quick and crushed a potion in his hand, and by gods you could only pray that the effects of the medicine would administer itself quickly and efficiently enough to hide the open wound.

Agitated and distressed voices were heard from outside and you bit down on your lip to ground yourself from falling from your perch. Within an instant the southern doorway to the warehouse crashed down, the blaring of flashlights now illuminating across the floor as in rushed three hunters with rifles at hand, their voices panicked as they spotted the tactician and ran towards him. But quickly proceeding them were two more men who were distinctly dressed in garb that was reminiscent of hunter’s attire but bore the insignia of the royal crown upon their backs.

_Gods…gods…the Crownsguard._

Ignis’s friends. These were Ignis’s friends, the very ones he swore to protect you against and keep your existence a secret.

“Shit! Iggy! Holy Shiva, you’re here!!!” Stammered the blond man who immediately bolted towards his friend and began to inspect him all over. “Why…how…why did you come here all by yourself?” This man whose name you learned to be Prompto was bouncing about his friend with his brows drawn together, his bright blue eyes cast in fear and his jaw peppered with the markings of a five o-clock shadow clenched with concern.

“Damn it Ignis!” Growled his gargantuan companion whose name was Gladiolus, and Astrals did the size of the man intimidate you. “What the hell where you thinking coming here all by yourself!? You knew how we discussed this together. We were going to head into this as a team! What the hell were you thinking!!!”

You were biting your lip so harshly now to refrain from weeping and thank the Six you did not have to breathe in fear of letting out a mangled sob.

_His friends…they didn’t know…Ignis was going to do this alone at the expense of keeping his friends safe…oh heavenly Astrals…Why Ignis? Why would you make such a risk like this?_

“Why, Ignis, why?” Pleaded Prompto as he hastily scanned the warehouse while the three hunters accompanying him inspected the ground level. You stifled another cry, only hoping that they would not cast their flashlights into the darkest corners of the rafters. But Prompto continued, the panic and fear in the gunman’s voice shattering your still-beating heart. “Why did you lie to us, Ignis? Do you not trust us? We were going into this together!”

“I-I can assure you I did this for the safety of you fellows,” Ignis said as calmly as possible as he pulled forth from his jacket the vials of Scourged daemon blood, but even from your perch you could tell he was failing to keep his usual composure about him. “I was not willing to put you two at risk. This was my plight that I personally endeavored to see to its end.”

“What the HELL, Ignis!” Roared Gladio who now gripped a hold of his friend’s shoulders and shook him slightly. Despite the companions seeming in awe of what their friend had done on his own, you could not help but wince at their wrath that extended forth from Ignis’s betrayal of their trust. “I don’t GIVE a shit we don’t see each other as much anymore because of what we’re each tasked to do. And I sure as hell don’t give a shit that you succeeded in all of this! You lied to us about seeing this through as a group! What the hell has gotten into you? What the hell do you think Noct will feel when he finally wakes up and finds out you could have died?”

You were sobbing, your face buried in your hands as your quaked with misery. No, how could you bear seeing this spectacle before you? And clearly this was all your fault.

“Ignis…what…what the hell…” Prompto breathed, and suddenly the flashlights turned back to the direction of the tactician.

You could smell it. You could see it from where you hid. Surely these men could as well.

While the wound may have stopped bleeding, surely as hell the stain of Ignis’s blood on his shirt remained.

“…SHIT. IGNIS! WHAT THE FUCK! YOU’RE BITTEN!”

“It’s just a cut from the altercation, I assure you…”

“LIKE HELL. YOU NEED TO GET CHECKED. NOW.”

“Gentlemen, I can promise you that…”

“NO. WE’RE LEAVING NOW. YOU COULD BE IN SERIOUS SHIT AND WE’RE NOT LOSING YOU TOO.”

You were in silent hysterics. What had you done? How could you? How could you let yourself give in to your own selfish desires before the mission had been secure? _No…no…oh gods, Ignis, I’m so sorry. Forgive me. Please forgive me._

“Gladio, Prompto…”

“Iggy please! Please! We can’t risk losing you too! Not after all we’ve been through!”

It was silent. The silence was all too deafening for far too long as if time had frozen for the remainder of eternity. But as the men stood in a stalemate, it was with the achingly tormented and pounding throb of his heart and the bitter scent in Ignis’s sweat that signified his remorse and sorrow and bitter defeat over losing control that made you shriek with despair within the depths of your own heart.

Ignis could only stare with his lips parted and mourning plastered over his striking features, but with a rise and fall of his chest, he sighed.

He gave in.

“Very well then.”

And with the comrades parading the tactician out of the warehouse, your mate cast one final secretive glance to where you were perched, as if he were giving you the goodbye you never thought he’d have to give you.

It was supposed to be a victory, your single shred of hope for a future held within the glass syringe that was shoved within your front jacket pocket. And yet, as the brigade exited the warehouse and van lights blared and voices ran their agitated discourse, you were all alone in the stillness of the night, embracing the crippling realization that your heart suffered from excruciating defeat.


	5. The Farewell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who fight for the people they love. For those who refuse to give up. For those who hold courage and strength within their hearts to see a new day , this chapter is dedicated for you.
> 
> Comments are always appreciated, especially for the content of this chapter. Thank you all for reading the journey thus far.
> 
> *You can find me on Tumblr as missyunie.

_Excuse me for a while_

_While I'm wide-eyed_

_And I'm so damn caught in the middle_

_Have you wondered for a while_

_I have a feeling deep down?_

_You're caught in the middle_

 

_Yeah, I might seem so strong_

_Yeah, I might speak so long_

_Might never been so wrong_

_Yeah, I might seem so strong_

_Yeah, I might speak so long_

_Might never been so wrong_

_\- London Grammar – “Strong”_

 You ran.

No. You fled.

Gods, how you fled from that warehouse in the disquietude of the night, your daemonic instincts guiding you all the while as tears stained your cheeks.

Gods how you fled from the scene, shame and sorrow and remorse and guilt shadowing your judgement as you darted from the Mindflayers and Marshmallows and Ereshikigals and Iron Giants that threatened to stand in your way as you ran for your life, and with your sobs piercing the blackness of the night, it was all you could do to keep your wits about you as you headed back to the Crown City.

_Astrals, what have I done? Ignis, oh Ignis…_

How could you. How _could_ you? What kind of monster would let her own selfish desires hinder her best judgment? How foolish of you to do what you had done, laying fangs upon the throat of the mate you had so cherished, opening a fresh would and leaving the man vulnerable and exposed and now bleeding openly in the darkness of the daemon plagued nightfall?

How could you?

And what would happen now?

What was everyone to think? What was to happen to the royal advisor upon arriving back at the Crown City to wherever his companions were taking him? How were they to ever trust the man with his nightly outings ever again? How were they to have confidence in him or believe in him and all his words and intentions when he had all but remained silent to his true purpose and mission, just for your sake? But worse of all, with the mark that he bore upon the base of his sternum that you hoped the potion had properly healed in just the right amount of time, how would any members of the Crown ever let the royal advisor partake in his responsibilities ever alone again?

_Ignis…Oh gods, I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry. Please forgive me. Please forgive me for my selfishness._

And you wept, your uncontrollable wails penetrating through the dark and startling a herd of Arbas that was sleeping serenely in the night and now scattered about across the plains of the Longwythe. You were foolish. Downright foolish. Even now you were thoughtless as you drew the attention of the daemons towards you, and in your terror you began to fear you attracted the ear of a potential nearby hunter who risked all to venture outside the city walls this late in the night. But you didn’t care. You simply didn’t care in your own shame from lack of judgement, and all alone as you sprinted across the lands in the isolation of the nightfall and bolted away from a Necromancer that could not distinguish you as daemon from human, you could truly care less about what fate would befall you.

_No…no…I_ have _to care_ , you thought to yourself as you held back your tears by biting down upon your lower lip which caused it to bleed, and as you darted rapidly back home your wild hair streamed behind you like fire and you pumped your arms faster in hope of seeking respite shortly enough. _I can’t give up. I have to keep going forward and I can’t lose hope, even if I screwed up. The future of this world and the livelihood of others depends upon me seeing this through and being strong. And how could Ignis ever live with himself knowing that I gave up on all we’ve tried to fight for all this time? I can’t fail him now…_

But it was easier said than done as you helplessly fought off a pack of Bussemands that saw you as all too human and struck at you with their fists.

And yet you fled and you kept going. You fought harder than ever as you dashed across the bridge to Insomnia.

Closer. Closer. Closer and soon enough you’d hope to find your reprieve.

_C’mon, Y/N, you can’t give up. You have to keep going…_

How you ever managed to find the strength to climb up that windowsill, you did not know. But it was as you clumsily scaled the wall and hastily slammed the window behind you and cast down the shades for protection and privacy, you turned your body around to stare across the room of your quarters in the dark.

Silent. Absolute silence. Finding yourself all alone you began to tremble as your eyes fell to the map upon the wall, your gaze darting to each of the red marks in which you had made. You had succeeded in the mission, and yet the Astrals still only knew if the struggle of your plight was for naught. With your breast heaving your eyes shifted to the floor where sat a series of extra medical equipment in case an injury befell either of you or your partner. On the coffee table was a stack of reports from the Hunters HQ, intelligences you had but spent all too much time studying and clearly knew by heart now. But with your gaze shifting one more time, your chest tightened at the sight of what you laid eyes upon. Draped over the back of the couch was the infamous leather jacket of Ignis Scientia, and with your nostrils flaring at the sight and scent of the garment, you rushed over and hastily scooped it into your arms. You inhaled deeply, the rich smell of leather tickling your olfactory senses and the aromas of the man’s musk, sweat, cologne, and love of coffee almost seeming as if it was sewn into the very stiches of the coat.

You sobbed, your fangs extending and your eyes darkening as the smells overwhelmed your senses and reminded you of the sorrow that plagued your still-beating heart.

“Oh Ignis, I’m so sorry!” You cried as your tears streamed down your face and you fell to the floor, your arms clutching the jacket tightly to your breast as you wept with remorse. What was to happen? What was to truly happen from this point on? Would his friends find reason to trust him again? Did they find enough evidence to discern that he was truly safe from the Scourge’s disease like they were so suspicious of? Would the Crownsguard find faith in him enough to believe that the daemon which caused such a mark to him was truly dead, or would they have their doubts and seek you out and end your life? But to your greatest agony of all, you choked on the dread and distress of whether you would ever be given the chance to see him again.

You panicked, and could your heart beat, it would. But your alarm spiked nonetheless and your eyes widened with sopping tears staining your scuffed and dirty face. For months upon end your mate had been an almost constant companion, night after night. The mate that held you safely within the embrace of his arms and assured you that the hope you had lost faith in truly still lingered upon that horizon. The man who fought tiresomely and sought answers and shed blood and sweat and tears at the expense of your future. The man that bred with you and filled you to completion and made you whole . This man whom you would be lost without and provided you with the very essence that gave you your humanity and the means to survive in this world.

His blood. Gods, the blood that gave you life. His blood within you that you swore pulsed through your blackened veins and made you feel alive.

What were you to do now, could he never return?

You bared your teeth and your claws gripped helplessly at the leather jacket as you brought it up to your face, and with your olfactory senses desperately clinging to the scent on the garment that you prayed would never fade away, you realized that it wasn’t the blood of Ignis Scientia that you truly cared about.

You’d die without it, for sure, but even more so, you would die without the man who possessed it.

Time suddenly ceased and you held your breath. Your chest constricted and your eyes broadened. There was so much more to this. So much more than this very moment, and in the deafening tranquility of the night and the smothering confinement of these four walls, you realized with a crushing realization of what it was you truly were feeling.

You loved him. You loved Ignis Scientia above all. Your mate. Your companion. Your giver of hope and life and your strength and all the good things in this despondent world. You loved him and by gods you could not live another day with yourself if you never survived to tell him how you truly felt.

You loved him, and you could only pray that you would get one last chance to see him to tell him before it was too late.

*******************

Night one had passed and no word of the man, your first nightly patrol leading you to not a single shred of evidence of his proximity or presence. The abandoned streets of Insomnia reeked only of the usual Ronin or Nagarini or Deathwal, and theses horrific daemons attempted to take you by surprise as you searched for any sign that Ignis had been made attempt to leave the company of his companions to come to you.

Night two had passed, and still nothing. Noticing a newspaper that had been haphazardly cast into a trash can, you grabbed the soiled tabloid and hastily scanned the headlines. With widened eyes, you gaped at the front page that was plastered with the breaking news that for all these months you had ever so been hoping to see: The killer had been identified and destroyed, and the Crown City and its citizens had one less fear to worry about.

This was your doing. You had saved the people from one less menace and helped foster one more single shred of hope for the future of these men, women, and children.

You should had been happy, yet your heart was dejected. There was not a single mention of the royal advisor and his involvement in the endeavor.

Night three coasted by, and on your evening patrol as you scaled the towering buildings and perched yourself up high to gain a vantage point of the city blocks below, your spine prickled as you watched from the roof top a lone van pass through the streets. You inhaled deeply, hoping to recognize the smell of the driver as he passed by and yet his scent was completely unknown to you. You panicked though nonetheless, curious over the fact that it had been so long since any human life had passed through these particular suites of streets. Perhaps the travel routes of the Hunters HQ had changed in light of the culprit of the murders being identified and wiped out.

Still no word from Ignis.

Night four transpired, and you traveled farther away from your lair, knowing very much how Ignis was disapprove of such perilous conduct. And yet, as you took out a small horde of Goblins that disturbed what little sanity you had left, you found yourself becoming more desperate than ever as you gulped in the stagnant night air and sniffed out the area, hoping to find whatever trace you could of your mate. And yet, there still was not a single sign.

Night five, and you were ravenous. In your vendetta to find any indication of the whereabouts of Ignis and if he was in stable social condition, you had hardly taken note of how agonizingly malnourished you had become. Whether it was due to disbursing countless tears on your mate’s behalf, the energy expended as you killed oblivious daemonic bystanders that pestered you in your searches, or the adrenaline that pumped through your body to give you the strength to continue forward, you found yourself quivering with starvation and at your wits end of keeping yourself together. Finding yourself panicking over what you were to do if you were not to receive the nourishment you required any time soon, you resorted to the old ways of your survival. As the dimness of the night fully arrived you made your way to the butchery and harvested the blood of a slain Aspidochelon. After arriving back to your den and almost inhaling the blood as if you had been starved of food your entire life, it was much to your horror that after hungrily ingesting the blood with uncontrollable need, within mere minutes you found yourself located on the bathroom floor, hunched over the toilet and vomiting up every ounce of the fluid in which you hoped with sate your famine.

And still no word from Ignis.

Night six. You lay upon the floor in silent tears with your belly rumbling, your eyes scanning through the day’s latest broadsheet while the Hunters HQ reports blared on the radio in the background. It was all the same. Still no word from Ignis.

Night seven arrived and you were curled into a fetal position upon the floor, knees pulled up towards your chest as you silently wept in your solitude. With your famishment causing you the upmost pain it appeared to you as though feigning rest was your only saving grace to help distract you from your discomfort and weakness of body. Your stomach churned and twisted into little knots, and by biting upon your own hand you were able to somewhat divert yourself from the burdens bearing themselves down upon your soul. With your throat constricting painfully you clutched at your breast as you lay ever so vulnerably, and shutting your eyes tightly another sob escaped your lips.

You had never felt so pathetic in your entire life. You had always been so much stronger than this.

Or so you had thought.

_Please Astrals. I just want to see him again. Please forgive me for what I’ve done. Just let me see him again, just this once._

This world possesses many mysteries and you had never been one to feel that you could ever be fortunate to be blessed with such a miracle. But with a tingling of your flesh and the instinctual extending of your claws, there was a sudden shift in the energy of the atmosphere that, despite your upmost exhaustion and fatigue, caused you to jolt upright feverishly into a siting position. Your nostrils began to twitch and your blazing red eyes blackened, and feeling your flesh began to tremble and your muscles flex and tense, a distinct aroma that you could never possible forget for the rest of your eternity began to permeate your olfactory senses.

_Astrals…Astrals…_

There was the distinct sound of metal scraping and the scuffing of boots upon brick.

Your eyes blackened further. Your chest started to heave. Your loins tightened. Your heart swelled with joy.

The click of a latch and the harsh grunt of one exerting his strength upon that which would not cooperate with him.

You were on all fours now, trembling beyond compare and your fangs extended as all sense of control and lucidity was lost to you.

Each second passed as if it were like an hour, and gods did you not know how much more you could take as you heard the earsplitting sound of the squeaky window shift upwards. His smell was smothering now. You were almost heaving. And with the pushing aside of the shade and with his long, lean legs shifting over the windowsill ledge, heavy boots thudding into the floor as his body entered your den, there was now Ignis Scientia standing before you in here in the now and very much in the flesh.

You could only gape. He could only stare in awe as your gazes were locked on one another as if though you were reliving your very first encounter together all over again. And yet, it was as the seemingly long seconds ticked by could you only but question if the gods had finally answered your despairing prayers or if this was all but a very cruel, hallucinogenic dream.

But with the very apparent smell of within the tears that streamed down his face and by the pumping and pounding of that beautiful heart within his broad chest filling your ears, you knew that this was all too very real. He was here. Ignis finally had come back home.

“Y/N,” he choked as if already at a loss for words, and you had no idea which of the two of you moved first as you darted towards one another and crashed into one other’s embrace. You were sobbing as he gripped tightly at your back and kissed your head and stroked your hair and let his own tears be known, and as he peppered kisses all over your face and lips, gods you could hardly keep your senses about you as you purred and mewled and rubbed your body against his in want of savoring his body heat you had been deprived of.

“Ignis! Oh gods, Ignis! I am so sorry! I’m so so sorry! I’ve missed you so much and I’m just so sorry for what I’ve done!” You sobbed as you took a hold of his hand and held it to your face, relishing in the warmth of his palms and nipping adoringly at his fingertips.

“Darling, it’s alright. It’s alright,” he attempted to say through strangled words to assuage your fears as his own tears coursed down his sculpted cheeks. “It is alright. I am fine. I am here right now. It is all going to be fine.”

You could only continue to weep as you buried your face into his chest and inhaled deeply the fragrance of his magnificent body that had been beginning to fade from your quarters during his absence. “Ignis, I’m just so sorry! I’ve been so scared this whole week that I had ruined everything and I was afraid that something else had happened to you! Please! Please forgive me for my mistake!”

Ignis almost gagged as he cried through heavy tears, and there was something utterly and incredibly heartbreaking and adoring over seeing this always so unruffled and collected man crumble like this before your eyes. He said nothing for a moment as he held you tightly against his chest and continued to stroke your hair he kissed you countlessly upon the top of your head. But after a few moments of letting your tears subside and his own dissipate, his warm hands upon your icy body soothing your weary form and the tickling sensation of his breathing upon the top of your head, he finally found the grounds and composure to speak.

“If only I had been sooner in coming back to you, my sweet,” he croaked as he pulled away from you slightly to look into your eyes. It shattered your heart to see those lovely green eyes bloodshot and his stern brows knit together with suffering, and with your body quaking within his grasp you felt a sudden sense of shame and undeserving of being in the presence of the royal advisor. Cupping your chin with his shaky hand, he angled your face up to study you, and brushing away your tears and with a mournful sigh parting from his lips, another tear spilled down his scarred cheek. “It is I that wish for your forgiveness in all this, Y/N, if I could ever deserve to receive such from you for making you wait all this time. Gods, how foolish I was on my own part, letting you fret like this.”

You could not let him accept this as his fault.

“I-Ignis, I –“

“You have no reason to seek my forgiveness for your repentance. This was my own fault,” he quickly cut in, and now he was beginning to quake as he stared deeply in your black and bloodred eyes, his lower lip quivering as he attempted to gather his words. “Gods, forgive me for leaving you out there all by yourself. What kind of man was I to abandon you and leave you in such a state? But I had no choice. I simply could not refuse my companions’ requests, lest I had wished to draw suspicion of you and risk your life. I could never allow myself to let you be hurt. What was I to do? I had no choice.” And he paused as he kissed you, his grip upon you tightening as if he forgot what it was like to hold you and cherish your lips upon his. “Gladio and Prompto and the Marshall and the doctors immediately took me back to the research facility and instilled me under constant watch. They provided me with relentless medical care and scrutinized me judiciously for any change in my condition in fear that the blood upon my raiment was evidence to the daemons we slayed causing me harm. They refused to take a chance on letting me out of their sight in distress of me contracting the ailment of the daemon. But little did they know,” and Ignis paused to laugh dryly as he kissed you again and as his tears continued to trickle down his cheeks, “little did they realize that they knew far from the truth. I was safe. I was safe in all of this as I was with you, but Astrals could I not say a word in fear of risking your life I’ve sworn to protect.”

And he kissed you harder now, his body emanating an unbearable heat that you had pined for terribly so in his short absence. With a groan tearing up through his throat as he cupped the back of your head with one hand and gripped upon your waist with the other, you sobbed with bliss as your lips danced hungrily over his as he assured you all was well.

The taste of those lips…gods, the tang of those lips that you treasured so much, and with a whimper and a flare of your nostrils, it was now you finally took note of the sound of his blood pumping madly throughout his veins as he held you firmly.

You had hungered for his presence, but now you hungered for more.

He pulled back and seized at both sides of your face, and with his nerves pulsating with electricity it seemed as though the advisor was the feeling the same. “I-I think that their suspicions of me are warded for now,” he said breathlessly as he pressed his forehead to yours. “Although Gladio and Prompto are most displeased with me, I think I have regained their trust, if only just for now. But we will have to be more cautious than ever now, even in light of our success and my faults. B-But,” and it was as though he was gasping for air as he pressed himself against you to give you that warmth you needed, “with the Scourge sample from the daemons within our possession and with the hope that Dr. Yaegre will find her success in developing the proper vaccine, we will no longer have to hide this. We can bring you into the light.” And he kissed you more harshly, almost painfully as if he was at his own wit’s end. “Gods forgive me. Forgive me for making you worry about me all this time, Y/N. Forgive me for not finding a way to get back to you.” And as if seeing the blazing red and black of your eyes and your fangs extended and dangling out of your mouth, his own nostrils fluttered as he could no longer hold on for one moment more. “I will not make you wait for me any longer.”

You were bawling with joy as you kissed him back feverishly, your claws gripping at his shirt and almost tearing at the fabric as he growled and nipped your lower lip in response. It was at this point that words were no longer needed to be said as the sentiment was more than beyond felt, the vastness of his affections for you known in every peppered kiss and stroke of his broad hands over your flesh. Without a moment’s more hesitation he scooped you up into his strong arms and hastily made his way towards your bedroom where within an instant he rid you and him of the troublesome raiment that separated each of you from the contact of one other’s flesh. It was all too much as the masculine musk of his scent began to saturate the tiny quarters, and with your nostrils splaying you wasted no time in grasping at whatever inch of his flesh you could find to grab onto as you crawled over him and brought your fangs to his neck. Ignis hissed with delight and pain as his own tears of happiness trickled down his beautifully scarred cheeks, and as you straddled him from above and drank hungrily from this throat, the taste of his blood trickling down your throat and sending you into an orgasmic frenzy, you whimpered and ground the soaking wet entrance to your heat against the protuberance that pressed between your legs.

“Gods, h-how I missed you,” growled Ignis excruciatingly but pleasurably as he gripped at your buttocks and grinded his manhood along the warmth of your wet folds. “Never let me make you hunger like this ever again.”

You could hardly focus or utter a word as your sable eyes shut tightly while you relished in the ambrosial taste of his blood, and whimpering and clawing at his chest you slowly raised your head to look down at him. You were a fiend beyond compare now, your mouth and jaw stained with his blood and your hair flowing about you like the bristled mane of a Behemoth, but as you stared down into the eyes of this man you adored so much you had never felt more human in your entire life.

“Ignis…Ignis…” You mewled as you began to gyrate your hips over him, and with your skin prickling and your nipples peaked with delight at the feel of his hands gripping tightly upon your waist and his fingertips pressing harshly into your skin, you wanted nothing more than for him to penetrate your tight little heat and fill you with his seed. “Ignis…I missed you too. I need you. I need you now. Please…”

He wasted no time in giving you what you wanted, lifting your hips and lining up the head of his shaft to your entrance. You threw your head back and an animalistic shriek tore up from your throat as he sheathed himself into your depths to the hilt, and without a moment’s hesitation he began to thrust upwards into you. Your breasts bounced as you steadied yourself with your claws upon his chest, and finding yourself as though you were experiencing your monthly heat, you bared your teeth and howled at the top of your lungs as he filled and stretched your walls completely. He was all the while grunting and groaning as his nails dug into your hips and the sudden pain of his nails slightly breaking your skin made you only want him more. He was sweating already, his lithe and lean pectorals and biceps working with all their strength, and you shrieked with joy as he would sporadically thrust harshly upwards, causing your body to jolt and your breasts to sway to his thrusts. With the animal side of your brain unable to withstand the beautiful sight of your formidable mate making love and breeding you from below, you brought your bloodied lips down to his chest and began to lick up his sweat and sink your fangs into his chest, another spurt of his warm blood gushing into your mouth.

Ignis winced and whined but the pain of your teeth latched onto his chest only seemed to drive him further. He was pounding into you now, the slap of his scrotum drenched in your juices echoing across the room, and wrapping his arms around your back he provided himself with the leverage he needed to keep his pace steady.

You screamed, your first climax reached, but Ignis was nowhere close to stopping.

It was the tactician who was a beast now, the man spurred on by your cries of his name tumbling from your mouth and the slickness of your climax dripping from between your thighs. Using the miraculous strength of his arms, he gripped tightly upon your hips and maneuver himself into a sitting position, his shaft never leaving the warmth of your heat all the while. With a growl he hastily stood up from the bed and moved the two of you over the wall where your back was immediately slammed against the hard surface, and gasping out of reaction and with your black eyes widened you soon enough were crying out and screeching his name again as he pulverized your sopping heat. He was growling and grunting your name as his fingertips pressed harshly into your buttocks, and him kissing you ruthlessly upon the lips while maintaining a perfect rhythm all the while, it was all you could do to clutch upon his shoulders with your claws to steady yourself from the onslaught of his gyrations.

You were already getting close to climaxing again as your passage tugged and twitched with each of his deep prods. And yet he seemed nowhere close to stopping.

You shouted and moaned his name, the smell of his blood and sweat and your essence driving you into a frenzy, and yelping as your tailbone banged against the wall, out of reaction you sunk your fangs deep into his shoulder and drank ravenously as the fluid trickled down your throat. Ignis hissed piercingly and growled, the pain he ensued only driving him on even further as he continued his relentless pace. His one hand only left your behind for a second to grasp upon your chin, Ignis lifting your face to stare you deeply within the eye. His green orbs penetrated deep into the depth of your soul, and may the Astrals bless you and allow you to see nothing else for the rest of your life. But replacing his hand back onto your behind now, Ignis nudged your face upwards towards the ceiling with his nose, placed his mouth at the base of your own throat, and bit down.

A second climax reached, but you knew he wasn’t done.

You were sobbing with joy as you howled and mewled and cried his name, your passage contracting and twitching and clenching around his length that filled you wholly to the brim, and with him not even giving the chance for the vibrations within your heat to subside, he pried you away from the wall, slammed you down onto the bed, and grabbed a hold of your ankles to position you on all fours.

_Yes. Yes. Fill me please. Mate with me, my love…_

Your love. You loved him. And how much you loved him as he infiltrated you once again and made love to you and mated with you for the third time since you parted.

You were crying with exhilaration as he hips flushed with your behind, his scrotum slapping against the folds of your heat as he rode you like the beast you were, and with your claws extended and tearing at the bedsheets and your fangs bared and tongue panting as though in heat, it was all you could do to steady yourself as you lost yourself in ecstasy. Ignis was moaning and whimpering your name as you mewled and pleaded with him to seed you, and pushing your buttocks back towards him and willfully clenching your own walls to tug possessively at his shaft, he scraped his nails down your back and hips as his thrusting shortly began to falter.

He was entirely lost to the point of return, his hips sputtering and his thighs tensing as they brushed along yours, and throwing back his head as his sweat trickled down his face and chest and stomach and onto your behind, he could no longer maintain the pleasure that had grown inside of him. He trembled and called out your name, and instantly you were shaking too and whining and whimpering as with wave after wave of his hot seed spurted into your depths and filled you to the brim. Ecstasy. It was pure ecstasy to mate like this, and you could only plead with the Astrals and thank them for blessing you with such a reunion with the mate whom you never wanted to part with.

Never again. Never did you ever want to leave his side.

“I-Ignis…”

“Y/N…”

You shared your final climax with him, your passage hugging his length and taking in all he offered you could as you rode out your pleasure together. With one last drop of his seed dribbling into your depths and the last tremor of your walls subsiding, you both fell to the bed as one, panting and exhausted.

You nuzzled him with your nose as you lazily licked at the blood that had trickled onto this chest and down his stomach, and a contented and blissful sigh softly escaped his lips as you nurtured him and took care of his wounds. But as you moved your mouth carefully around every inch of his body, the aromas of the essences fostered as result of your mating filling your senses and easing your weary mind, you prayed once more that Astrals they would never let this moment end. As Ignis lay alongside you he trembled, his arms wrapped tightly around your tiny frame as if afraid to let you go for a single moment. As you continued to clean him, a satisfied whisper left his lips, and lifting your face to look at him your cold heart clenched in your chest. A single tear trickled down his cheek, but the softest and most adoring of smiles was spread across those beautiful lips.

“Are…are you alright?” He asked you breathlessly, his voice cracking slightly as he touched your face and looked you deeply into your eyes. “I…I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

You inhaled sharply at his concern and there was something so endearing about the way that he always seemed to forget how strong you were; your body was built to withstand this type of strength during mating. Daemon or not, though he looked over your frame at the marks he left upon your pale skin. They would heal with ease surely enough.

“I’m fine, Ignis,” you whispered, taking his hand and purring as you nuzzled his palm against your face. You smiled and stretched, now nestling your face into his chest, and for one reason or another suddenly you found yourself becoming rather shy over the way he held you ever so tenderly, his fingers weaving through your hair as he kissed your forehead. Inhaling deeply and relishing in the smell of his sweat and semen and the lingering taste of his blood upon your mouth, you swallowed hard, suddenly overwrought with a sense of emotion. “I’m wonderful. More than wonderful.”

_Say it,_ you told yourself as you lost yourself to the warmth of his arms and chest and the softness of his flaccid shaft against your inner thigh. The soothing lullaby of the pattering and fluttering of his heart beat made your spine burn with happiness and the way his slightly calloused fingertips trailed themselves down the curvature of your back made your nerves go numb. Your tummy turned in anxious knots at the feel of the heat of his breath upon the top of your head; the sturdiness of his taut abdominals flexed as he lay beside you, and his thigh muscles twitched and tightened as your claws splayed themselves over the expanse of his flesh. _Say it._

“Ignis?” You said quietly, afraid to look him the eyes now as you trembled against him, and Ignis shifted against you for just a second as his legs entwined themselves with yours.

“Hmmm? Yes, Y/N?” He replied softly, your heart fluttering at the gentleness of his words, and by the sudden quivering of his own heartbeat you found yourself suddenly caught off guard.

“I…I….”

But gods, you couldn’t say it. You just couldn’t’ say it, no matter how hard you tried, and as if an unknown menace had reared its ugly head and stopped you in your path, you reserved yourself to a brief silence.

“I…I missed you.”

Ignis breathed in deeply, pressing his lips to your head and cheeks and lips and pulling you tightly against his frame. “I know, my sweet. How I missed you too, more than words will ever express…”

What was it that you were so afraid of in uttering these words, you did not know. But nevertheless, you hoped that perhaps tomorrow would give you another chance to find the courage to say what was truly on your mind.

At least you hoped.

************************

And yet even the gods could not give you the strength nor the courage to utter the words after each quiet day passed into heated nights where you and Ignis would join as one together in tangled limbs, hushed moans, and tender kisses showered over every inch of the other’s flesh. Much to your dislike and yet full-fledged understanding, Ignis had to remain more adamantly tied to his compatriots in his work, and so therefore he frequented your quarters less often than he had done in the past. The infestation of daemons throughout the city still ever remained a nuisance, and out of terrible luck there was a new series of attacks in which the victims were found with their bodies lacerated with hellish claw marks. As you continued to read over the hunter’s reports as well as inspect the daily newspapers, you could only hope that whatever it was that spurred on this daemon to attack so irrationally was just a reaction to the shifts in the lunar patterns, or perhaps the daemon itself was going through its own biological shift. The members of the Hunters HQ immediately began to seek out the culprit while the affiliates of the Crown worked exhaustedly to begin studying the DNA samples of the daemons you had defeated in order to better understand the nature of the Scourge and how this one particular breed of daemon came into fruition. More importantly still, Dr. Sania Yaegre was slaving away within her lab to begin developing what you had hoped more than anything would finally be the concluding and successful vaccine that could treat you of your ailment. However, given the nature of working with such complicated technology and manipulating the cells found in now two types of blood samples, the initial trial of this new vaccine could take a whole week longer to develop than usual.

It was a waiting game at this point. A terribly dreadful waiting game that you had to endure, but one that you willingly faced head on.

But worst of all, you were frightened like a cornered animal and you didn’t quite know why.

_I just feel it. Something isn’t right, and I know I should be more hopeful right now_ , you would say to yourself each night as you read through the newspapers that Ignis brought you as he held you in his arms. And yet, no matter how much you tried to convince yourself that all would be well, somewhere deep inside the miasmal depth of your heart and soul, there was a darkness that just wouldn’t seem to leave you in peace. As if it hadn’t already been the case, Ignis’s company was the only source of reprieve that you could find, and it was with your couplings and his routine seedings that left you feeling at ease and casting the unknown causes of your apprehension to the wayside. As you lay within bed in each other’s arms, his sweat and blood sticking to your skin as he held onto you tightly and kissed you to reassure you that all was right, it was in moments such as these that you forgot about the metaphorical daemon which seemed to hover over your shoulder and pester your sanity.

_I just have to have patience. I have to have hope. It will be alright. If Ignis believes it then so should I._

Or so you hoped.

Another darkened night cast its umbral shadows over the city of Insomnia as you waited patiently for Ignis to arrive at the den on this particular evenign. You were tapping your foot upon the floor as you sat on the couch and listened to tonight’s hunter reports. There was nothing new tonight, thank the Astrals, for last evening another innocent life suffered its loss at the hands of the daemon on the loose. You were staring down at today’s broadside as you continued to listen and smell for Ignis’s arrival home. The royal advisor said that he would be later than usual tonight as he would have several affairs to attend to throughout the day with members of the Crownsguard. One affair was with Gladiolus and Prompto to assist them in working on a project installing more efficient daemon-warding headlights for the Crown’s vehicle brigade, and knowing how important it was to have automobiles that could transport materials and resources safely within the city limits and out to Lestallum, it was more essential than ever to complete this commission. The Crownsguard also had apparently successfully captured a Scourge- infested Havocfang outside the city, and thus, tests and experiments were to be ran on the creature to see how its illness would compare with yours.

You cast your eyes to the clock upon the wall and your heart sank.

_It’s ten past ten already_ , you mused to yourself. _Ignis is already ten minutes late. He’s never this late. Maybe he just got held up with the Marshall and everyone else?_

And yet as you continued to sit there and stare at the clock, each second assuming the role of its own eternity, you knew this wasn’t right.

“He’s never late. Absolutely never. But I just have to be patient.”

Another two minutes. Another three minutes. And another five minutes went by.

Something just wasn’t right.

_No, I can’t just sit here anymore._

You were going to do something about this.

_He’s fine, Y/N. He’s needed by the Crown. His work is his priority right now. Just give him a chance to finish up his work and he’ll be home._

_No_ , you said back to yourself. _I know better than this. I’ve known Ignis for long now and this isn’t like him. I need to make sure he’s ok._

You got up off the couch and snapped off the radio. You inhaled deeply, hoping to smell any sign of the tactician, and yet, there was nothing. Not a single familiar trace. Biting your lip, your felt your body beginning to tremble with a sudden apprehension that you couldn’t quite describe, and unable to contain your nervous energy anymore you grabbed your jacket for comfort and made your way outside through the window of your quarters and onto the city streets of Insomnia below.

It was silent, save for the stray Iron Giant that was grumbling far off in the distance somewhere. You took careful steps, listening intently to whatever other sounds you could pick up. Save for the stagnant breeze that coasted over the roads and ruffled random bits of paper and trash, nothing was out of the ordinary. You continued to sniff, your nostrils flaring and taking in every potential smell that you could, and yet there was nothing odd.

“Ignis should be here by now,” you repeated again impatiently as you continued to walk cautiously and dart your eyes around in every direction down the alleyways you passed. “Something just isn’t right here at all. This isn’t good at all. Why hasn’t he gotten a hold of me?”

Your skin was prickling as you slowed down your steps, the Iron Giant mumbling to itself once again somewhere several blocks away. Feeling your stomach clench and your claws extract, your fangs slowly extended out of your mouth and you bared your teeth as you continued to search the parameters of the area. Your spine burned with a sudden dread you had never felt before and the beast within your mind could not comprehend why you suddenly felt you were suffocating.

And then, you stopped.

You planted your feet apart. Something was coming. Something was coming closer at this very moment and by gods you were certain it was out to draw blood.

Your nostrils broadened and spasmed and you growled. An aroma from far off began to tickle your olfactory senses, but by the scent getting stronger by the second, your eyes widened and you gritted your teeth as you tried to make sense of what it was you were sniffing.

_No…it can’t be. That’s impossible_ , you helplessly began to process as you imbedded your feet wider apart and readied your claws. _It just can’t be…why would a Garula be running through the streets of the city?_

_Oh…oh no…_

You knew that damn scent all too well. You were being lured.

How foolish of you.

How you should have known in that instant that you were played for a fool, the scent a mere diversion for the attack you were about to endure. For as the trace of Garula blood and hide now caused you to choke and lose focus, you hastily turned around to the approach of a heavily clawed figure charging at you and ramming you into the pavement. A loud snarl clawed its way up through your throat as you tumbled onto the street, your flesh scraping upon the ground as you helplessly tried to gain focus on your attacker. Rolling out of the way just in time to avoid the slash of claws marks grating against the street, you weakly brought yourself to your feet and growled at the daemon that stood before you.

She was towering over you, her solid seven-foot tall frame intimidating and grotesque beyond compare. The daemon’s chest was heaving and she was salivating the blackish Scourge as she stared you down, her black and red eyes emanating the most absolute hatred and disgust at your existence. You were quaking with fear as you observed her knife-like claws dangling at her side, and with the protuberances of her elbows giving her the most incongruous of looks as she stood tall in her ragged hunter’s fatigues, you knew within a flash that you were about to be challenged to fight for your life.

_She’s…she’s one of the them…the daemons we hunted_ , you thought all too stupidly in your sudden fear as you watched her take one more step closer to you, her tail lashing back and forth upon the pavement as she bared her fangs at you. _Oh gods, I thought we killed them all. How did we not kill them all? How could this have happened. How -_

But there was no answer to this now. You had forgotten one of the clan, a great calculated error on your part. You had made a mistake in all of this. And now you had to set this right.

And in the darkness of her loneliness, she had traveled far and wide to seek you out for revenge for what you had done to her pack.

A horrified scream tore up through your throat as you felt yourself thrown onto your back as the female began her onslaught on you. Her horrifyingly stunning face contorted with absolute revulsion and anger as she gnashed her fangs at you, and by gods you did not know how a creature could be so utterly and unbearably strong; her pack mates had been one case, but she was in a league all her own. You tried and tried and tried to fight her off, your own claws swiping across her face and your legs kicking at her from underneath her massive frame, and with her ghoulish shrieks emitted from her own vocal cords, you felt your spine prickle with terror at what it was you heard within her cries.

This was the cry of an animal seeking revenge, but for so much more than that. Because as you warded her off feebly from below, her adrenaline coursing through her daemon veins giving her the inhuman strength of an Astral, it was as your gaze fell to the objects dangling from her neck that made your eyes widen with absolute pity and your heart shatter with remorse.

The hunters had always worn their dog tags to identity themselves in case they had perished within the fields, and this was no exception in the case of this the former life of this female daemon. However, it was not just one tag that dangled from her neck but _two_ , and as you stared up into her bloodred and black as death eyes, her eyes becoming all too human for just a brief second in time as she stared down at you with abhorrence, you felt yourself pity more than ever the plight of this creature.

You now realized it. The male you had killed back in the warehouse. The look in his eyes before you slit his throat with your claws. The pleading in his eyes. He was trying to tell you something but just didn’t know how. He wasn’t pleading for his own life just for his own sake. He was pleading with you to spare his life because he had a mate that he didn’t want to leave behind and alone in this world.

And his lover was now clawing at your face and chest and in hopes to rip you to shreds for the sake of her lost mate, and it was now _you_ who pleaded and sobbed as you fought for your life at the expense of the mate _you_ had loved and sworn to protect forever.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” You cried through your tears as your claws sunk into her arms and kicked her chest. “Please forgive me. Please forgive me that you had to suffer!” You were overcome with shame, the goodness in your heart overwhelming you as the daemon wrapped her monstrous hand around your throat and screamed at you, the Scourge in her saliva dripping down onto your face and chest. Gods did you feel for her. Gods could you only imagine how she felt as she lived without her mate in her eternal existence, but you had to persevere to protect the man _you_ swore to always watch over. It was killed or be killed, the survival of the strongest of the species, and by gods you were not about to die.

But Astrals was she so solid and formidable and you could only handle her clutch around your throat for so much longer as she screeched down at you and ripped at your throat.

A distinct smell filled your nostrils and the panicked call of your name rang in your ears from far away.

_Astrals…Astrals…it’s…_

But you couldn’t look away as you began to cry and grit your teeth and scream back at this daemon who sought to end your life.

“Y/N! Y/N!”

_I have to fight…I have to protect him now. I can’t let her get to him. I promised that much. I have to fight back._

But gods you couldn’t. You were trying but you couldn’t. Why was she so strong?

A macabre smile slowly spread itself across the daemon’s lips.

She knew she won. No, you couldn’t let her, but you knew she won too.

“Y/N!” His voice got closer. How did he even see you in the dark?

You gaped up at her as you tried to pry her claws off, and yet you failed. You failed so tremendously. This was it. She had won. Lifting her clawed hand above her head and pausing to stare at you with the blackness of her soulless eyes, she let out a victorious shriek, swished her arm downwards, and pierced her claw right through your stomach.

“Y/N!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

You gasped, the pain all too unreal beyond all compare as you looked down to see her massive hand buried into the depths of your lower belly. You sobbed as you watched the black Scourge of your blood began to seep out from the wound, and all the while the daemon laughed her ghastly and maniacal laugh as she clutched at your throat dominantly, knowing all the very much that you did not need to breathe.

Gods, was she laughing, and you could have laughed too at your failure if it were another time and place. But by gods was she laughing so much that you just couldn’t understand. Why wouldn’t she stop laughing?

But with the realization that her claw was gashing and tearing through your belly and into the depths of the womb that would one day bear your offspring, the weight of this implication suddenly became all too excruciating and what you had always wished and dreamed of for yourself would now forever be lost. She had very much well known what she had done.

_No…why…all I wanted, gone now…The pain. Dear Astrals, the pain. Please don’t make me bear this pain like this. I can’t handle this anymore. Is this what death really feels like?_

You could hardly withstand it anymore, but it was as his steps stampeded towards you, the smell of his cologne and coffee and the pounding of his heart within his chest that always set you to ease, you knew that you just had to push through, just for him, one more time.

_Kill this monster so I can save him and he can live on. Fight. You have to fight. Protect him like you promised._

And so as if the Astrals blessed you with the gift of their strength, you brought your own clawed hand upwards and slashed blindly, miraculously severing the throat of the daemon and sending her body tumbling to the ground. With a surprised scream tearing up through her bubbling throat, the female’s heavy frame toppled to the side, and as if almost instantly, any proof of her existence dissipated into a cloud of miasma.

She was dead, but so was all your strength as your gaze cast itself up into umbral, starless sky.

_Ignis…Ignis…Oh gods, Ignis, I’m so sorry. Forgive me...forgive me…But at least I was able to protect you one last time._

You were gasping as you clutched at your abdominals, the sight of black blood spilling out like a geyser making your stomach lurch and further increase your agony. Even more so, it was your face that was contorted with torture and sorrow as the scent of the man you so truly loved was now blanketing you, the arms of the tactician wrapped around you giving you but slight comfort as your vision whirled and clouded.

“Oh Astrals! Y/N! Oh gods!” Ignis muttered and cried with green eyes wide with terror, and soon enough his hands trembled upon you and as he terrifyingly inspected your injury.

You could hardly speak as you tried to grasp his words, the pain so unbearable as you attempted to focus your eyes on him in the dark of the night.

“I’m s-sorry, Ignis,” you choked as you coughed, pain shooting down to your belly as Ignis began to shove his hands into his duffle bag and pull forth medical supplies. “I-I was beginning t-to get worried about you and s-so I went to look for you...”

You smelled the saltiness of his tears that were streaming down his face as he grabbed at some bandages that were in his bag. In his initial fright however, he did not seem to notice the vastness of your injury, and with an agonized sob leaving his lips, it appeared that now his logic allowed him to see the true depth of the hole within your stomach. “Oh Astrals, this is all my fault!” He muttered helplessly, all of his composure gone as he teared as he sleeves and ripped off the fabric to cover your gaping wound in hopes of getting it to stop bleeding. “Forgive me for not being prompt. Forgive me for not getting to you faster! Gods, please forgive me for letting this happen! This is all my fault!”

You wanted to laugh in delirium, not understanding why he was apologizing so much, and so all you could do was smile weakly in your suffering as you looked up into those eyes you adored and cherished so much.

“It’s ok, Ignis. It’s ok. I killed her for you so she won’t ever hurt you. I protected you like I said to myself I would. It’s all ok…”

“Astrals, no, Y/N! It’s not! This is not ok! I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, I-“

A sudden blaring of daemon-warding headlights streamed down the alley.

Your eyes clouded a little bit further as your hands clutched at your belly. Dear gods, you were a daemon. Why were you bleeding so much? This wasn’t normal.

But you weren’t a normal daemon whatsoever, and it seemed now the human side to your being was the cause of your downfall.

The vehicle got closer, the burning smell of gasoline and two very familiar scents wafting into your nostrils as you angled your head down the street.

Hunters. Maybe there was hope for you yet, or perhaps this was your demise.

The car stopped. Both driver and passenger doors shut loudly. Heavy boots pounded upon the pavement as Ignis’s hands began to fumble over your body.

“Iggy! Iggy! Oh gods, this is where you went!” Cried a chipper voice. It was Prompto. “Why did you run off on us like that?”

The men were getting closer to you.

“S-Shit, Ignis! What the hell is that!” Yelled gruffly the voice of Gladiolus, and gods did you want to sob at the sound of absolute hatred and disgust in his timbre.

“Prompto! Gladio! Y-You have to help me!” Ignis cried helplessly as if suddenly realizing his friends were approaching, all tact and composure within the man’s voice gone, and it was with his warm hands upon your frame did you find a shred of comfort in knowing he was still close to you.

“Iggy, is that a…” Prompto murmured, and slowly you turned your head upwards to look at him; the sight of you staring into his bright blue eyes appeared to startle the man and make his eyes go wide and cheeks blush. “Six, she’s a…”

“Shit, she’s a daemon! Ignis, what the hell are you doing with her? You need to get away from her now!” Gladiolus roared, his teeth gritting in disgust.

“No!” Ignis barked at his friends as he snaked his arms carefully underneath your body and scooped you up, bringing himself to his feet with you in his arms. You winced and whined with agony and gritted your teeth with his movement, and by the tremble of the tactician’s arms around you you finally realized how apparent his panic was. “We need to get her to the facility now. She’s our only hope! We need to save her now! We have no choice!”

“Like hell! She’s a daemon! She’s clouding your judgment with her aura!” Gladio retorted, but only for a moment did you see the Behemoth of a man flinch as your eyes fell to his, your gaze foggy but your orbs pleading with him nonetheless. “Shit...she’s…is she…”

“She’s the one with the cure and if she dies then all of our hope is gone!” Ignis cried, as his tears streamed down his face and tricked onto your cheeks.

“Oh g-gods,” was all Prompto could utter, and without the men saying another word your entire retinue now fled to the vehicle, Ignis carrying you inside and carefully sitting you upon the floor of the van. Almost instantly the vehicle sped off into the night, each bump over lopsided pavement causing you to cringe and cry out in anguish as your bleeding endured. Gods, there was so much blood everywhere and yet Ignis held onto you firmly as if hoping his own body could create a barrier to stop the hemorrhaging, his efforts failing miserably. All the while Prompto could only stare at you with wide, curious, and terrified eyes as Gladiolus drove forth, and feeling your skin go cold you began to grasp tightly upon Ignis with your claw for support.

“I-Ignis…Ignis…” you said weakly, sobbing as your nails scraped down his skin.

“J-Just hold on, Y/N,” he pleaded. “Please just hold on. We are almost there…”

It was all a blur as your vision faded in and out of focus and gods was your body drenched in your own black, sticky life fluid. With the sudden and harsh jolt of the van, you felt yourself being whisked out of the vehicle, Ignis cradling you as he took you to wherever the gods knew where. Gladiolus was shouting and there were panicked and terrified voices, and with Prompto yelling for people to get out of the way your eardrums began to ache at the clamor of flustered voices. You heard a series of metallic doors slam and the smells of chemicals and blood and other fluids permeate your nostrils.

Your back met the hardness of an unfriendly steel table, and with the feel of Ignis’s arms loosening from around your body, you began to sob, fearing that he was going to leave you. “I-I’m here, dearest, I’m here,” he reassured you as he grasped your hand and kissed your forehead, and Gladiolus and Prompto gasped as other voices began to chatter hurriedly and rush around you as you failed to get your eyes to refocus.

“Ignis, holy shit, are you…are you serious?”

“You and her…are you…”

The voice of what you presumed to be a researcher cut off Prompto and began to quickly speak. “Dr. Yeagre will be here in moments,” he said with rather controlled yet astounded words as you sensed his gaze upon you. “Dear gods, I’ve never seen anything like her before. Then she’s the one…the one Sania’s been using for the vaccines.”

“Astrals!” Cut in the voice of another researcher. “We have to hurry and get this bleeding to stop! How the hell is she even still alive with this kind of wound!”

“We need to hurry and get her a transfusion. But how the hell…how the hell are we supposed to do that? This blood isn’t human!”

“We need to close her up, STAT!”

You were weeping, your face contorted with tears as the reverberance of the room full of heartbeats pounded like a symphony for the dead, each pulse of human blood pumping in living hearts sending you into further panic as strength slowly and continuously left your body.

“We need to hurry before we lose her!”

“WE’RE TRYING! CAN’T YOU SEE THAT?”

“Get the other doctors in here as quickly as they can! Bring anything! I don’t care what it is but we have to try!”

Gods, this pain. How was this level of pain even possible?

“I-Iggy?” You said softly, your eyes searching for the whereabouts of the royal advisor, and you could have laughed at the realization that you used his nickname given to him by his best friends.

“Y-yes, my sweet?” He replied, utter terror and anguish in his voice as he gripped you tightly.

“N-Need…strength…”

“I understand, my dear…”

Ignis knelt down so that his throat was upon your lips, and opening your mouth as best as you could you sunk your fangs weakly into his neck, the warmth of his blood gushing down your throat and causing your nostrils to flutter and your eyes to perk open slightly.

Gasps chorused around the room, and yet Ignis didn’t move a muscle away from you as he pressed his neck more closely to your lips and held your head gently.

“S-Shit. Holy shit, Ignis! What…what-“

“Oh my gods…all this time and she was one of them! _She_ was the one who left that mark. Dear gods…”

But you didn’t care what they thought as your gently wrapped your claw around the back of Ignis’ head, your fingers caressing the beautifully soft and feathered strands of hair that always tickled your cheeks and breasts and stomach when he kissed your body. You drank and drank, whimpers and purrs and mewls rumbling through your throat as Ignis held you firmly, his own sighs leaving his lips as he gave you what you needed.

You removed your mouth from his throat, your lips stained with his blood, but you could not care one bit in world of what all else felt. With your eyes shifting into focus ever so slightly, you looked up at Ignis whose eyes were streaming with tears and his throat bleeding and gods he was the most beautiful sight you had ever seen in this world.

May it be your last.

“We can’t get her to stop bleeding!” Cried a nurse who was attempting to clot your stomach, and you grimaced and thrashed and suddenly screamed in pain as you realized the doctors had been working on saving you all this time.

“Sania should be here any second! Gods, she just stepped out of the lab with what we think might save this poor creature!”

“If she makes it!! Just look at all this blood! Shit, get me a scapula!”

Ignis’s blood had helped you, but finding your chest heaving with shortness of breath for the air you didn’t need and your body to tremoring as if convulsing, you realized that it just simply wasn’t enough.

“WHERE THE HELL ARE HER ORGANS?” Cried a technician. “WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO SEW UP TO FIX HER IF I CAN’T FIND HER ORGANS?!”

“Give her an antidote or a phoenix down! Try an ether or smelling salts! Anything! Anything will suffice! We just have to try!”

“Iggy, dear gods, we’re so sorry!” It was Prompto’s tears you heard now, and breathing deeply as best as your lungs would allow, you could smell the anxiety laced in Gladiolus’s sweat as though he had only just now realized the error of his judgments.

“Shit…Iggy...Iggy…”

“WE NEED DR. YEAGRE NOW! WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!!”

But it was your senses of smell and hearing that were slowly starting to fail you as your pain became all to unbearable, and with your parted lips you found the strength to speak.

“Ignis, I’m sorry I won’t be able to see the d-dawn arise with you again like I p-promised…”

“W-What?” Ignis croaked, and it was for him as if time had come to a cessation, recalling only in this very movement now those very words you uttered to him so many months ago. “Gods, don’t say that, Y/N!” He cried as he clutched onto your hands while the surgeons helplessly worked their hands over your tiny body, but with angst in their shouts and disgruntled frustrated exchanges you knew deep in your heart that they were running out of options. “Please don’t say that! We’re going to take care of you! J-Just hold on! Don’t give up!”

_Oh Ignis…my love Ignis…_

He was yelling your name now and yet you could hardly hear his voice, your tears obscuring the lush depths of his eyes. But gods, you held on for one more second to behold the sight of this beautiful man and mate of yours for as long as you could.

There is a myth that states that beasts of the world sense the knowing of when it is their time they shall perish from existence, the creatures lesser to man embracing the void of the unknown with acceptance and without the fear that a man would possess. It was yet to be studied or determined whether those of the daemon kind shared the same aptitude, but as you lay upon the operating table with the blackness of your blood continuing to gush out from your laceration as you bleed deep within, there was a sense of knowing that was all too real. You could not accept this, and you would by far embrace yet, and yet all in all, it was your time to go. You just couldn’t be stronger anymore for any longer.

_Thank you for giving me that one last light of hope, Ignis. I wish you well when you find your own light…_

“I-Ignis?” You could barely say above a whisper, and a final tear streamed down your face as you brought Ignis’s hand to your cheek to feel its warmth one last time. Lifting your other hand weakly, you slowly reached up to touch his own, the very face of the man you had come to love with all your heart. “Ignis, I…I….I lo-“

But with a flutter in your chest so much like that of a heartbeat and with one final rising and falling of your breast, you looked into the emerald eyes of Ignis Scientia one last time and the entire world went black.


	6. The Dawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part Five left off on a rather hellish cliffhanger. What will be the fate of our lovers? My lips are sealed are though, for you will just have to find out for yourself.
> 
> Thank you all for reading this story and partaking on the Reader's and Iggy's journey together. Your comments and feedback have been nothing but appreciated and a joy to read!
> 
> And now, for the moment you've been waiting for, the conclusion of "Nightcall," Part Six - The Dawn.
> 
> *You can find me on Tumblr as missyunie!

_There's a new way_

_It's a hard way_

_Only for you'll say_

_'Cause you're my baby_

 

_It's a new day_

_And a clean slate_

_Oh how our dream of it_

_‘Cause you're my baby_

 

_Everywhere you go oh_

_Everywhere you go oh_

_Everywhere you go oh_

_ls everywhere I go_

_You'll be everywhere I go_

_You'll be everywhere I go_

_\- London Grammar – “Everywhere You Go”_

 

_What is this feeling? Why do I feel so…calm? At ease?_

Soft cottons blanketed your lap, enveloping your legs in a warmth that you had felt you had all but long forgotten to remember and experience.

A steady beeping sound echoed across the room.

_Where…where am I?_

You felt your chest rise, a sudden dull, aching pain jolting into the depths of your heart and causing you to wince. No. This was not pain. This what not pain at all but something you had felt long ago. It was something else entirely in its own as you continued to notice your chest gently rising and falling to a steady rhythm.

All the while, a mask was cradling your mouth, a cool air flowing down your esophagus.

Your eyes slowly widened.

_I’m…I’m breathing…_

The beeping continued. _Blip. Blip. Blip_. What was that sound that you had remembered hearing once before, long ago when you were a child and had gotten hurt?

Another stultified ache coursed through your chest, your lungs expanding to suck in all the oxygen it could. Gods, how much you had forgotten what this felt like.

You flexed your shaky fingertips, your digits grasping upon the softness of the cotton that lay over you. A blanket? Yes. That’s what it was, but with your claws digging slightly into the grooves and fibers of the throw, you felt your hands start to tremble as you touched the threads.

Your chest clenched. These were claws. They were nails.

_My hands…they’re hands…not claws…What…what…._

Your breathing began to quicken as your toes wriggled underneath the blanket, and suddenly a numbness ran up your spine. Taking in the deepest breath possible, you flinched slightly as the cool air from the oxygen mask filled your lungs. The sensation felt all too new for you as you shifted uncomfortably upon the surface in which you lay, a groan escaping your lips as your hands began to feel around in the darkness behind your eyelids.

“Y/N? Y/N? Oh gods! Doctor! We need a doctor in here! NOW!”

Warmth began to envelope every single muscle, fiber, and tendon within your frame as your eyelids began to quiver in attempt to open.

 _Blip. Blip. Blip_. The beeping began to resound more fully in your ears as you slowly became aware of your senses, and it was abruptly with a rush of voices and the approach of several human forms did you find your eyes begin to flutter open.

“D-Dear gods, it’s a miracle! I can’t believe it!”

“Call Dr. Yaegre here immediately! She is going to want to see this as soon as possible!”

_I’m…I’m in a hospital. Astrals, how did I get here?_

Another groan tore up through your throat as a heated sensation shot down to the base of your spine. Your skin, ever so warm and tingling as human hands began to inspect you, and feeling your chest tighten it was now you realized what exactly the sensation was you were feeling in the depths of your breast.

_My…my heart…my heart is beating…_

_Dear gods…I’m…I’m…_

You were human.

Your eyes were finally fully open as your vision attempted to come into focus, and with your legs stretching out underneath your blanket and your hands grasping upon the bed it was all you could do to refrain from crying as your eyes darted to each face that stared at you with astonishment, wonder, and surprise.

“Dear gods, I can’t believe you’re awake!” Chimed in one doctor as he began to inspect the levels indicated on the machines within the room. “After all this time!”

“How are you feeling, hun?” Said a plump nurse as she inserted an object into your year, appearing to take your temperature. Another took your blood pressure while a third nurse ran into the room with charts and supplies.

“I’m…I’m fine…” You murmured hazily, wincing at the sudden pain of having to use your vocal chords. “I’m alright I think…”

“Ramuh, Dr. Yaegre is going to be so thrilled over this,” said one of the doctors. “Your blood pressure, temperature…all of your levels are exceedingly normal! This is a miracle beyond belief.”

“How you even survived is beyond me…” Replied the second nurse as she stared at you.

You flexed your fingers once again and you curled your toes, and suddenly a tear began to stroll down your face as you sucked in oxygen as best as you could. How long had it been since you actually last breathed, you couldn’t even recall, but with the sensation of your lungs expanding to their fullest while the warmth of blood pumped vigorously throughout your veins, this moment in time was becoming all too real for you as medical professionals continued to swarm around you excitedly, playing and poking around with your medical equipment and asking you questions that your whirling mind could hardly comprehend. You combated with your thoughts, finding yourself lost to their questionnaire, but as you lifted your hand and looked at your palms and fingernails, your eyes widened at the stark truth of what this all really meant.

_I’m human…that means…the vaccine. I must have been given the vaccine. It worked. But how?_

Almost like a punch to the gut, dear gods how it all unexpectedly came back to you, all at once. That daemon. That horrifying female daemon that sought revenge on your life. Her claw through your stomach that sent your Scourged-blood spurting forth like the volcanoes of Ravatough upon the pavement. Gods, that unbearable pain you endured as your life slowly faded to its end, agony and suffering you would have never wished upon a living soul.

But now touching your belly that suffered the blow as silent tears streamed down your face, the doctors and nurses calling your name as your mind drifted off, it wasn’t the pains of your healed wound that ached the most.

The vision of his emerald eyes peering into yours as you clutched at his hand while you lay dying filled your mind. That strong and warm hand that always set your mind at ease as you held it to your face, the very last thing you had felt in your former life.

_Ignis…Oh Ignis…_

Where was he? Where was Ignis?

You wanted to heave as the most raw of sensations tore up through your chest, the sudden crippling impression of human heartache the worst pain of all, but was suddenly as you heard your named repeated over and over did you realize that one of the doctors had been speaking to you and your eyes snapped upward in his direction.

“Y/N, Dr. Yeagre will be here very shortly to speak with you and run tests,” the man said to you softly, and your mind desperately tried to grasp at what he was saying. “Gods, will she be more than ecstatic to see this miracle for herself and ask you questions that she didn’t get to before you passed out. But for now, we have a visitor for you that has more than certainly been wanting to see you for a very long time…”

The doctor moved out of your field of vision, and inhaling so sharply that you shuddered with pain you almost instantaneously burst into tears. It was with wide eyes that you now saw standing within the door frame to your hospital room someone you had missed terribly with all your heart.

It was your sister.

“Y-Y/N?” The young girl stammered, her mouth gaping and her hands slackening at her hips as she took a step into the room. “Y/N…you’re awake…”

“L-Lily?” You stuttered back, and it was with your skin prickling and your limbs trembling did you bring your hands up to your mouth to hold in a sob. Your little sister, ever so much younger than you, now standing here within the flesh. How long had it been since you saw this twelve-year-old girl? Was it almost a year now?

_Dear Astrals…I can’t believe it. This is so unreal…_

“Y/N!” She repeated again as she cried and ran to the bedside, wrapping her arms around you immediately as tears streamed down her face. The doctors and nurses took note of the seriousness of this reunion and hastily left, shutting the door behind them as you now clasped onto the little sister that you had so tragically walked away from all those months ago.

“Y/N! Y/N! You’re awake! You’re awake! I can’t believe this! I missed you! I missed you so much! I thought you were gone forever!”

You held onto her tightly as you buried your face into her softly wavy hair, but pulling her away from you to look at her face, you held back a bawl, the presence of your sister much more real than you could have ever imagined. She looked so much older than you had last remembered, as if this young girl had overnight transitioned into a beautiful blossoming young woman, and Astrals did it hurt you more than ever to know that you had missed this segment of watching her grow up.

“Oh gods, I’m so sorry Lily!” You cried as you pulled her back into your arms once again. “I’m so sorry! I missed you so much too and not a single day went by without me thinking about you and mom and dad! I’m so, so sorry!”

The beeping of your heart monitor quickened, but gods were you grateful for the sound to remind you of how very much alive you were.

“We missed you. How much we missed you,” Lily uttered, sniffling as she let her tears fall, but after a moment of her gaining her composure she pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down next to you, the girl furiously brushing away her tears that ruddied her face. “We were so worried about you. Every single day. We never stopped thinking about you. We never stopped searching for you. We tried not to give up on hope, but gods was it getting harder and harder by the day. And then when we found out that you were found? W-We couldn’t believe what had really happened to you. Sister, why? Why didn’t you come home to us? I wouldn’t have cared about what you had become! You’re my sister and I would love you no matter what!”

You bit your lip and brushed away your own tears, your skin prickling with heat at the sudden shame you felt. “Oh Lily, I just couldn’t! I was so scared of what I had become. I was so afraid of hurting you and mom and dad and I could never live with myself if I had lost control! If I killed you? I would never live with myself for the rest of my life!”

“I don’t care about any of that!” Lily said, frowning as her face contorted to hold back her tears. “You just walked away from me! We would have found a way for you to stay! We would have loved you no matter what!”

You both were lost to words at the expense of waterworks for a while as Lily gripped at your hand, the feel of her slender fingers upon yours soothing, and after you both managed to calm down your sister managed to finally speak once more.

“I-I still can’t believe this though,” Lily whispered. “All this time that has gone by and I thought you were forever gone. Every day I was hoping you would come back home. So much has happened since you left. When I just turned thirteen a few weeks ago my only wish was that you would come home. That’s all I wanted. I guess that present is a little bit late though, huh?”

You stopped breathing for a second, another twinge within your breast causing you to flinch. Despite every day of your life as a daemon seeming like one long never-ending night, you had never _once_ last track of the time and the date, despite all that you had coped with to survive. Surely…surely you could not have forgotten your own flesh and blood’s birthday, let alone her special day of officially becoming a teenager.

Your lips parted, a dreadful realization washing over you.

_No, I couldn’t have missed it. The attack…Ignis bringing me to the research facility. Me ending up in this hospital. It was all just yesterday. No…Then…then…_

“Lily…how…how long have I been here?”

Lily now starred at you with wide eyes, her hand slowly raising up to cover her mouth. “Sis…the doctors…they didn’t tell you when you woke up?”

Perhaps they did, but in a blur of all your brain and body tried to process upon awakening, chances were you may have failed to hear such news. Surely though something so important like that would have stuck in your mind? How could you not remember that? “N-No, Lily. They didn’t. At least I don’t think they did...”

“Oh Astrals, Y/N,” Lilly sobbed, grabbing at your hand and squeezing it to comfort you. “How could they not tell you? Y/N, you didn’t just wake up all of a sudden. You…you’ve been in a coma. You’ve been in a coma for seven weeks now.”

An excruciating burning sensation ran down from your cheeks and neck, you realizing that this was the blood draining from your face. “S-Seven weeks? I’ve been here seven weeks? But Lily, then that means…you, and mom and dad. You’ve-“

“Mom and dad aren’t here right this moment because they both had emergency work affairs to attend to,” Lilly nervously cut in and casting her eyes down to the floor. “But we’ve been coming by here almost every single day, in hopes that we would be here when you woke up. When we found out that you were here and we saw what state you were in, it was basically impossible for us to ever leave the hospital. We really didn’t know what was going to happen to you with your ailment and something could have happened to your condition at any moment. The vaccine that you were given could have adverse effects that no one would be prepared for.” Lily paused and sighed, and suddenly the teenage girl took on the persona of someone so much wiser and collected beyond her years. “It was so hard though. We didn’t know how to handle it. Mom and dad were a complete wreck, even more than me. They were in such denial when they saw you lying here for that very first time we arrived here. You were such a wreck when we first saw you. It was you, but it wasn’t. Your hands were like claws and you were pale like death. Your shallow breathing wasn’t even human too…I think Dad took it even worse than Mom did, seeing you like you were death yourself. But with each time we came by you got better. Color started to come back to your face. Your hands changed. Even your hair changed. But when Dr. Yaegre explained to us that it was going to take a while for your body to transition back to normal, we had to remain super optimistic. But your injury, Sis…on top of you recovering from the Scourge, you had your injury. Sis, it was such a mess…”

At the very mention of this you felt your stomach churn into knots, and with your hands trembling you placed them upon your belly. You swallowed hard, and with Lily nodding to you and turning her head away for a moment to give you some privacy, you adjusted the hospital gown upon your frame and shifted it up away it from your torso. You gasped loudly, managing to refrain from vomiting upon the sight you saw.

_No…oh gods no…_

How on earth did you _truly_ survive all this?

Vaccine or not, the medicine in which had been administered to you was far beyond able to repair the damage that had been done to your now human body. From below your belly button to above your pubic bone was an unsightly gash in your pallid skin, and tracing your fingertips over the hardened scaring it was with a weep that you had only but now realized the true weight of this mark in which you bore. The mar so deep within your flesh, profound into your depths and core of your womb. A persistent, tender throbbing present where the seed of your mate once had found its shelter.

The sterile soil in which no seed could no longer be planted.

The pain of what this meant was beyond what your heart could bear, and bringing your hands up over your mouth to stifle a sob that threatened to leave your lips, your sister quietly cleared her throat as she too grasped the burden of that mark. “Y-You know though, Y/N, you were never really alone at all in these seven weeks though, even when Mom and Dad weren’t here,” Lily quickly said as she watched you hold back your tears. “Like I said, we couldn’t always be here each day, but it was almost every time that we showed up to the hospital that we saw someone else here with you, sitting by your bed and watching over you.”

The muscles in your throat tightened as your eyes widened, and with your skin flushing like fire it almost had become too much at this moment at what Lily just said. You were about to open your mouth to speak, yet your words were trapped within your throat, and so Lily continued.

“We…we found out about you because of him. He was a member of the Crownsguard. I remember reading about him in the papers all the years and hearing about him in the news. He was the one that got a hold of us as soon as he could,” she murmured softly, her eyes now cast to the floor as she played with her hands. “We were so grateful to him for finding you. We couldn’t thank him enough for saving you and finding you. But he was so pained, Y/N. He was in so much pain. At first I didn’t understand it. I thought he was just a member of the Crown, doing his duty to protect the citizens of Insomnia. But whenever Mom and Dad and I came here and I would rush to the room to see you, I was always stopped in my tracks before I could make it through the doorway. He was almost always here, Y/N. He always sat by your bed, holding your hand. He was always silent and yet the way he looked at you while you slept said everything. I had never seen anything like that. It broke my heart. And every day he would try to bring you flowers when the vendors managed to have them for sale.” She paused, and your wise little sister was now tearing up as she motioned towards the dresser in the corner of your room. You gasped, your lower lip trembling at what sat there. There sitting on its top was a small vase with white blossoms that were wilted, and yet in their ashen and shriveled color they were still utterly beautiful. “T-Those were from last week. He hasn’t been here since but none of us had the heart to throw them out. I just couldn’t. It was a way of saying he was still here sitting by your side…”

You were crying now and you simply couldn’t stop the tears, no matter how hard you tried. Ignis. All this time, with each passing day, he watched over you. Your protector. Your mate and companion. Your lover. The man you loved so much and the man that you would give anything in the world to see at this very moment.

Oh gods how you loved him. It hurt beyond any wound you could ever suffer.

You could barely speak, you almost suffocating on the constricting of your throat muscles, and wiping away the snot and tears from your face as you trembled, you found the strength to speak.

“He…he hasn’t been here for a week,” you repeated, almost inaudibly as you fought your queasiness, now terrified of what you might learn next. “He’s gone then, isn’t he?”

Your sister looked back down to the floor again, biting her lip. “For now, Sis,” she said softly. “Just for now. I didn’t want to ask or pry any information out of him, but Mom and Dad managed to find out that he was going to Tenebrae for an expedition for a few weeks. It was pretty urgent from my understanding, but we don’t know for what reason. He never said to anyone how long he would be gone. All I know is,” and Lily cast her gaze to yours, a saddened smile gracing her lips as she took your hand, “he didn’t want to leave. I peaked in the room and watched before he went. I watched him take a hold of your hand and hold it to his chest while he held his own to your cheek. He didn’t even have to say a word to you for me to know what he meant.”

And almost as if old habits die hard, you brought your hand up to your face and envisioned the way his palm smelled and felt upon your cheeks, the warmth of his fingertips soothing your icy skin and causing delighted purrs to rumble in your chest.

How you missed that touch and what you would have given to feel it again.

“You love him, don’t you, Y/N?”

You were startled at the suddenness of her question, and as if the weight of the world came crashing down upon you, you felt your chest heave, your skin flush deep crimson, and the once-stillness of your heart now pounding violently within your chest. For as you now stared into the bright blue eyes of your thirteen-year-old sister, you had truly realized that there was one thing in this life that was for certain.

Whatever fate befell you, whether the once daemonic plagues of the past or the mortal fears of the future that you would carry with you, whatever steps you would take into the unknown, you would carry on with your head held high. You would never feel alone. You had your future. You had your light. All would be right with Ignis Scientia in your heart.

**************

_Several weeks later…_

Life continued on, however hard it may be. The transition back into your old human life had not been an easy one, and while your body had almost two whole months to adjust to human functioning while it was laying comatose, it wasn’t until you were cognizant and functioning on your own that you realized it would take you much longer than anticipated to feel like yourself again. With finally meeting Dr. Yaegre, the brilliant scientist had explained to you that this would be ordinary, but regardless you fought very hard to not become discontented. As a daemon, the darkness had become your constant companion, and while sentient above any other of your kind and reminiscing while a daemon about how much you had always relished in feeling the warmth of the sun, you found yourself becoming almost depressed as you took note of how short the daylight actually was as a human. Even yet still, the brownish hue in the atmosphere during what daylight hours existed made you feel rather hopeless and exhausted, and so to cope you took to napping more than you ever would as a human. Having avoided the daylight for almost an entire year, your skin still felt rather hypersensitive whenever you stepped outside during the safe hours, and in general the slightest touches felt more sensitive than they used to. Transitioning back to human food was also another plight that had you feeling rather disheartened. You were always a lover of the culinary as a human, but with you body having only be accustomed to blood and the solutions fed to you through a feeding tube, on more than one occasion you became ill after indulging in homemade cooking for the first time in over a year.

The hunger pains you could endure, but it was the occasional twinge of the wound that left your belly and womb disfigured that would leave you with the greatest pains and sorrows of all.

Yet even this could not compare to the twinging deep within your human beating heart.

It had been weeks now and there was still no word about the royal advisor. This was all to be expected of course, though, for his duties to the Crown never-ending, he could not put his responsibilities to his liege and companions on hold for the sake of anyone or anything else. You had tried to remind yourself of this and remain all but positive as each day passed, and you continued your old habit of reading reports and tabloids about the affairs led by the Crown, any mention of an expedition to Tenebrae was only very brief.

Gods, did you pray he was alright. Gods, let this man get home safely for his own sake and for even your own.

Your sister Lily was all the more perceptive to your body language as she would walk into your room periodically throughout the day to see you sitting along the windowsill ledge and staring out into the darkened night as daemons wandered the gloomy streets. How very little words that had to be exchanged between the two of you for her to know how much you were hurting inside over this man you missed so much, and more often than not she would come to sit by you and would merely take your hand and hold it tightly in her own.

“He hasn’t forgotten you, you know,” the thirteen said quietly one night, and it suddenly felt as though you were talking to a much older and wiser version of your baby sister. “I know he hasn’t. The day he walked away from you, I could see it in his eyes. It killed him. I know what he feels for you, Y/N. You just have to be patient. He’ll be home soon to see you for who you really are.”

Gods you could only hope this as you laid your head upon Lily’s lap and wept silent tears.

The broken days passed into endless days, and all you could do was remain hopeful as you resumed the life you once knew. On one particular evening, you sat upon your bed, hunched over various job applications, hoping to apply to several in case EXINERIS would not take you back due to your extended absence. You were tired, staring down at the paperwork and tiresomely writing away your personal information over and over again, wondering for a brief moment while all of this mattered in the grand scheme of things as the days got progressively shorter. You sat down another application, wondering just how long you would even last in the position or how stable the job would be once the darkness fully enveloped the world.

 _I can’t give up on myself_ , you thought sadly as you sat down your pen and walked over to the window to look outside. _As hard as this is, I have to move forward now. I can’t just lay down and quit. Not with Ignis out there somewhere fighting his own fight._

_Ignis…_

Gods, how much you would give right now to hold him in your arms…

A roar of a vehicle’s engine passing somewhere outside startled you, and perhaps still inclined to behave in the manner of your former daemonic ways, you stood motionless and listened carefully to where the sound carried. You heard the engine cut itself, and for a few moments more you heard nothing else. Not knowing why your skin was prickling the way it was, you sighed, sitting back down on your bed and resuming finishing up your paperwork. But there was a knock on the front door of your home, and suddenly you stopped all movements. You couldn’t breathe as you heard the creak of the old front door and the sudden muffled chatter of your mother and father talking to the unknown visitor. Quickly glancing out at the window once again, you could only wonder what brave soul would possibly risk wandering outside when the dusk was nearing ever so slowly.

You hardly moved or breathed as you listened from all the way upstairs, you throat constricted as you failed to make a word out of what was being said. You cursed in frustration, only wishing for just a moment you could possess your daemonic abilities to assist you in this plight . And yet, with your spine tingling and your skin flushing unexpectedly, you couldn’t help but take note of the very distinct voice of the stranger that conversed with your parents.

Unable to handle your curiosity any longer, you stood up to leave your bedroom and make your way downstairs when all of a sudden your sister barged into your room, her eyes wide and chest heaving. She startled you beyond compare, but with the rosiness of her cheeks and the sudden broad smile spreading across her lips, your heart instantly began to pommel and hammer within your chest.

“Someone’s here to see you,” she said breathlessly, and not even giving you a chance to respond, she darted out of the room as quickly as she came.

You were breathless, and gods did your skin burn and blister like a thousand suns. Unable to withstand your anticipation any longer, you quickly made your way down the hallway, around, the corner, and down the steps towards the living room.

Astrals, you could not contain the sudden joy that threatened to burst forth from your chest the moment you walked into that room.

It was him, standing there facing your parents and engaged in deep and profound conversation, his face weary and tired from gods whatever he had endured in the time of his absence. He was pale, his beautiful emerald eyes exhausted yet nonetheless full of hopeful life, and by the curve of his brows and his features cast in sorrow, you wanted more than anything in this moment to make all his shortcomings right.

You were utterly breathless and as you opened your mouth to speak, your nostrils flared, the scent of his cologne and coffee in his clothes sending a warmth through you that you had missed so much.

_He’s home. Ignis is finally home._

“…Ignis?”

He stopped his words. He stopped all motions. He failed to find breath. And now, turning around to face you, his eyes became wide and locked onto your human gaze as if he had never seen anything so beautiful or precious in his whole life.

“Y-Y/N…Y/N…oh Astrals, Y/N,” he choked, a sob tearing up through his throat as he made his strides towards you. He was trembling with each step he took, but just as you both stopped a mere foot from one another, he inhaled deeply as though questioning whether or not who he was seeing was real. “Y/N…you’re…you’re here…you’re awake…” He was dumbfounded, and with his lower lip trembling, your eyes brimming with tears as he gazed upon you with all the admiration in the world, he slowly raised his arm and reached out to you with his warm leather-clad hand and cupped the side of your face.

You gasped and sobbed with joy as the warmth of his palm soaked into your skin, the sensation of him touching your human skin unlike anything else you had ever felt. His thumb caressed your cheek and brushed over your lower lip, his thumb parting your lips and leaving you completely breathless. Without you even realizing what you were doing, your old daemon habits kicked in and you reached up with your hands to grasp at his to hold it tightly against your face. You whimpered and mewled softly at the contact of the warm leather, and never in your life could you believe that you would feel so whole once more.

“Oh Ignis….” You sobbed, never wanting to let go of his hand. “I missed you so much. Gods, I was so worried about while you were gone. I woke up and I was told that you left and I haven’t stopped thinking for one moment of where you were within this world.”

A laugh and mangled cry rumbled through his throat as Ignis closed the gap between you and wrapped his arms tightly around your small frame; he was trembling as if he had never felt something so exquisitely soft in his arms. “W-Worried? About me?” He asked, laughing again as his tears trickled down onto the top of your head. “Darling, Gods, how I have felt the same for you with each passing moment all this time. I waited every day for you, praying to the Astrals you would wake up. I was so frightened at the thought that you would be lost to eternal slumber forever. I could not live with myself knowing that what happened to you at my expense and if you truly never recovered. And then,” and the tactician was now almost gasping for breath, “I was called away to Tenebrae for war with a faction of rouge Niflheim soldiers south of Tenebrae. But what was I to do? I could not say no. It was my duty to serve and I could not just stand idle and let the innocents suffer at my lack or responsibility. But Astrals, every day I never once stopped thinking about you and the guilt that festered within my soul, knowing that I was not here to watch over you.” And now he pulled back, cupping your face once again as his eyes shimmered with joy. “And then I was contacted that you had woken up and I made my way home the moment I could. And so seeing you here right now with my own eyes in this very moment? Alive? Breathing? Thriving and in the flesh? Gods, it is more than my heart can bear.”

And with that he brought his lips crashing down to yours and gods was the whole world alight as if you had never felt anything like this before. Your human lips kissed him back, your soft hands grasping at his face and you whimpering with joy as your lips danced together, and all the while his hands snaked their way up your back and held you tightly to his frame.

“Y/N, Y/N,” he cried, holding your face and kissing your nose. “Y/N. My precious love.”

_My love…_

You heard your mother sob with joy.

You knew that your sister was smiling.

You held onto your lover tightly, relishing in every second that passed by as Ignis embraced you in his arms, the masculine scent of his cologne wafting into your nostrils and the heat of his body warming your frame. But lifting your head and opening your mouth to speak, it was your father who cleared his throat and broke the silence.

“Mr. Scientia,” he began rather shyly as he addressed the royal advisor, and by the way your father looked you in the eyes you could see how overwhelmed he truly was feeling. “T-Thank you. Thank you for finding my daughter. Thank you for giving her hope and for giving her life back. Thank you for taking care of her, here, now, and in the future…”

Your cheeks were flushed as you held back your tears, your father gazing upon you with love in his eyes like a father giving away his daughter on her wedding day. But then his eyes fell to the royal advisor, and as they looked at one another it was as though they shared an unsaid conversation of sorts with one another, and it was all you could do to wonder what went through their minds.

Ignis pulled back to look at you and took your hand in his chin once again. “I…I would like to take you somewhere before the sun falls,” he murmured, a faint blush creeping up through his cheeks.

You swallowed hard, feeling yourself flush at the mysteriousness of his words, but nevertheless you nodded. Turning to look at your family, they each cast you tear-filled gazes with smiles, your sister saying a million words to you as she grinned. With Ignis taking your hand, you hastily grabbed your coat from near the door, put on your shoes, and parted your home and into the night where the evening would bring you.

You were met with the presence of his motorcycle outside, you and Ignis seating yourselves upon the vehicle and setting off as one into the darkening night to wherever it was the tactician was taking you. You buried your face into his back as you held onto him tightly, you losing yourself to the lush senses of the wind whipping through your air and the biting scent of leather of his coat. Ignis drove on, the temporary peace of this bleak night casting away all fears of what was soon to arrive in the night once the daemons arrived. But those fear were soon completely forgotten when you arrived at a building, vintage lamp lights lit outside the main doorframe, and with Ignis hoping off of the motorcycle, he took your hand and helped you off the vehicle. Within the street light, you could see that his face was flushed and he was breathing deeply, and grabbing the keys from his front pocket, he unlocked the front door and led you inside.

It did not take you long to realize where you were.

The interior, while rather modest was very much comfortable and inviting, the main entrance hallway lighted softly by a solitary oil lamp, and the smell of coffee tickled your nostrils in the most pleasant of ways. It was warm inside, and as you took a step closer inside the anterior, you felt your heart begin to palpitate, the fluttering of your heart’s chambers a feeling that had been but all long forgotten.

How many weeks since you awoke as a human and yet you still could not get used to the feel of your heartbeat within your breast. How strange it felt to feel your skin blush, to feel butterflies fill your chest and stomach and tickle your depths. And while you no longer possessed the heightened senses you once used to, it did not take you long to feel yourself swallowing hard and your loins quiver as you inhaled deeply and took in the scents of his home.

It smelled like him in every way, and Astrals how you wanted to be enveloped by him.

“Y/N,” he murmured, and you now turned to him to see him looking at you adoringly, his sculpted cheeks flushed deeply and his lips parted as he gazed upon you like the very first time you met him. He removed his gloves and put them in his pockets as he stepped forward and touched your face once again, and almost purring at the feel of his fingertips dance over your cheeks, you fluttered your lashes up at him as he fought with his words. “Astrals, how I missed you. Your laughter. Your smile. How you overcame your adversities. Your bravery. Your strength. The smell of your skin and the feel of your frame against mine. Gods, damn me for walking this earth while you slept. Will you ever forgive me for you taking the brunt of all this suffering?”

You couldn’t control your sudden onslaught of joyous tears as you buried your face into his arms. “Ignis, how I missed you too! I was so hopeful to see you again and I will never have to walk alone without you, ever again…”

It was as if the world ignited into the hells of the Infernian as Ignis pulled your face to his and kissed you fervently and hungrily once again, his lips only leaving yours for a while as he scooped down to pick you up and carry you upstairs into his bedroom. No more words needed to be shared, the sentiment all the more apparent as he carefully began to undress you of your raiment, awed and breathless gasps leaving his lips as each inch of your rosy human flesh was exposed to him. His fingertips were trembling as he touched the curves of your shoulders and your clavicle and he softly cupped with his hands the supple mounds of your bare breasts. Ignis shivered from the warmth in his hands, your skin unlike anything he had felt from you before, and all the while helpless and happy sighs tumbled out of your mouth and you threw your head back in ecstasy, truly feeling now for the first time what it was like for this man to touch your human flesh . However, it was Ignis pulled down your pants and panties to expose your already soaking wet heat did he gasp harshly as he situated himself upon his knees in front of you.

“Y/N…Oh Astrals…gods forgive me…”

His hand splayed themselves over the lower part of your stomach, the scarring from the unsurmountable damage done to your belly uneven and glossy in the lamp light. You winced slightly to the touch, the wound still not fully rid from its twinges and pains, and with a tear trickling down Ignis’s face, he brought his lips to the mark and pressed them to it gently. He was trembling, his inhalations suddenly uneven as if he possessed all the remorse in the world over the weight in which that mark bore. All the while you stood before him, your fingers coursed through his sandy strands of hair, and as he looked up at you with tears in his eyes, you smiled sadly down at him and brought your hand to his face.

“It’s ok, Ignis. It’s ok. What matters is what is here in the here and now…”

And you pulled him to his feet and you kissed him feverishly, and through your bittersweet and contented tears you worked him out of his clothing and began to kiss every inch of his exposed flesh. His lithe pectorals and the deep dips of his abdominals. The tautness of his biceps and his thighs. The tightness of his buttocks. You kissed him on the mouth and cheeks and nose and even the base of his throat, old habits dying slowly once more as you nipped at his throat and inhaled his musky scent. You murmured his name and you kissed him in every way possible as you cupped his scrotum in one hand and enveloped his shaft with your other, and his helpless and desperate moans tumbled out of his mouth as you touched him like you never had before.

Gods, did he return the favor as he lay you upon the bed and spread your legs wide, and he was gasping and his nostrils flared at the scent and smell of your heat that was dripping with need, his fingers gently plunging inside and massaging your inner walls with his soothing and calloused fingertips. With such caresses alone, he could have brought you to your peak.

This was all so different than any other coupling. The former, the forbidden joining of man and daemon in a heated passion. But this? This tonight was something entirely different. It was virginal. It was pure. It was the exploration of man and woman together as with each and every touch of his hands upon your breasts and ribs and buttocks and inner thighs and you in return to him you discovered one another all over again, and nothing brought you more joy than feeling his flesh upon yours like it was the very first time.

Clutching onto him, you were holding him tightly as he hovered over you, his lips caressing yours and nuzzling your nose as you felt the pressure of his engorged shaft press against your folds. He was breathing heavily, but him wanting to take his time and give you all the care you needed, you could not help but sense that he was at his wits end and unraveling at the seams. Like old times, he was ready to mate.

“I-Ignis, please,” you mewled as you let go of his shoulders and pulled his face closer to your, your sodden tears of joy continuing to trickle down your cheeks. “Please. I am yours. Be one with me. Don’t make me wait for you any longer.”

He whined at your pleading, and bracing himself along the side of your head with his propped elbow, he took his other hand and grasped upon his shaft. Inhaling deeply, he pushed forth, and gritting his teeth and letting out a deep moan he sheathed himself inside of you to the hilt.

You were gasping. You were moaning. You were crying out in ecstasy and tears were streaming down your face as he made love to you and mated with you, and once again, after all this time, all was well within this darkened world.

He was whimpering your name as he rested his head upon your shoulder, his teeth grazing your skin and his lips kissing you softly as he moved ever so sensationally inside of you. Your passage gripped tightly at his length, almost as if in desperation of never wanting to be parted with him ever again. You clutched onto his back, your nails digging slightly into his skin as he steadied his pace, you mewling and wrapping your legs around his waist as you buried your face into his chest.

So pure and so new, and yet it all felt just like home.

You were crying out his name. You had never felt anything so wonderful in your entire life.

He made love to you like the woman you were as he quickened his pace ever so slightly, his thrusting deeper and harsher but nevertheless his gyrations passionate and sensual. With him moaning your name as he buried his face into your throat and cupped your breasts, it was all you could ever want to pray to the Astrals that this union of lovers and mates would never once again be severed.

You brought your mouth to the base of his throat and bit down gently, your nostrils flaring as he hissed and gripped you more tightly with his strong hands.

His breathing became ragged. His thrusting started to quicken. You begged and pleaded and called out his name, wanting to feel the warmth of his seed inside of you like it was intended to.

He was gone and you were gone in a tangled mass of limbs as he wrapped his arms tightly around you from underneath and pressed his frame as closely to yours as humanly as possible. He whined loudly, his face buried between your breasts as his seed spurting deep into your heat. You were crying with joy as your passage took in every drop, your walls pulsating and tugging around his girth as you lost yourselves to the whims of your climaxes. Gods, how you had forgotten what this felt like, but as a human it was everything beyond compare as he now interlocked his fingers with yours above your head and you wrapped your legs more tightly around his waist, never wanting him to go.

He was spent. You were relieved. And with the last of semen trickling from his shaft, he fell upon you as the tides of your coupling finally subsided.

Ignis was breathing heavily as he carefully wrapped his arms around you and pressed your head to the plains of his chest. You held onto him tightly, your lips pressed to his pectorals as you relished in the smell of his skin and sweat, and while the odor wasn’t as strong to you like it once used to be, nonetheless, it made you feel safe. Warm. Loved. It made you feel everything.

 _Astrals, please don’t let this all be a dream_. _Please don’t let this ever end_ , you pleaded in your mind, feeling suddenly terrified that you would wake up from your slumber back in that lonely apartment scattered with tabloids and empty blood bags. _Please let this be real. And please finally give me the courage to say to him what I wanted to say to him all this time._

But it was Ignis who cleared his throat to speak, him seeming to suddenly become bashful as he lifted your face to look at you. “Y/N, I was so afraid that I had lost you,” he began quitely. “I was so utterly appalled to see you upon that lab table as your life began to fail you. I felt guilt. I felt remorse. You saved my life and yet there I was, appalled at myself that I could do nothing to save you in turn. I was terrified beyond my wit’s end at not knowing if the vaccine would restore you. Gods, did I pray. And my prayers were answered. And yet, while I watched you recover, as I watched over you each and passing day when my time would allow me, I had felt the biggest penitence of all, knowing that I could potentially lose you forever, knowing that I never got to say to you what I wished to say.”

Your heart leapt in your chest, your very heavily beating human heart. You blushed. You lifted your head to look him in those stunning emerald orbs, your lips parted breathlessly as you awaited his words.

_Oh Astrals…_

“Y/N…. perhaps it was the gods’ greater plan that lead us to meet one another on that fateful night. Perhaps it was hunter’s luck or just a rare happenstance, but, there is one thing I know for certain in the here and now. Oh Y/N…I love you…I truly do. And from this moment on I shall cherish you until the end so that we may see that dawn rise together, just like I promised you.”

You cried with joy, having never heard such perfect words uttered to you. Words that you had wished you had not been so terrified to confess to him, but it was all well now. You finally had your strength to say the same.

“Oh Ignis…Oh Astrals, how I love you too…And I will love you always until the end of time….”

He was all and everything. The only mate you could ever want. The mate you so desperately wanted since you began this trek down this path called life. The mate that for the remainder of your life would make you feel like the human you were, forever and always.

***************

_Four years later…_

The world may have been plagued with darkness, but it had never been voided of miracles.

For now, it was not darkness that cast the shadows across the land. No, not the shadows of the umbral, abysmal dusk.

It was the shadows cast upon the land by the rising of dawn.

The warrior took heavy steps down the stone marble of the Citadel with his companions by his side, his king finally returned after ten years of toil, sweat, and tears. He stood proudly by their sides, lifting the visor from the bridge of his scarred nose and sweeping his tousled hair away from his forehead as his gaze stared endlessly down the streets. One by one, the commoners slowly began to make their way onto the boulevards, cries and cheers of jubilations piercing the air as the pinks and yellows and orange hues of sunrise spread across the canvas of the Insomnian skyline.

The darkness was no more. The daemons were no more. The light would be everlasting.

It was a miracle.

The soldier inhaled deeply, his heart overburdened with the signs of life that strewn itself across the streets, and for what it was all worth, a soft smile spread across his lips. He heard a body stir next to him, and looking to his right he saw that his king was smiling at him, the handsome raven-haired man with the crystalline eyes gazing upon his advisor with the look of all the knowing of what was on his companion’s mind.

“I’m alright now,” he said placing his hand upon the tactician’s shoulder. “I’ll be fine. And I am grateful that you were here to stand by my side. But for now,” and the King paused, warmth spreading across his dirtied cheeks as he looked up at his friend, “I think you have someone waiting for you.”

And with a smile of his own, the warrior was off, weaving through the celebrating civilians and towards the light of his existence.

Run. Run. Run. She’s waiting for you.

Run. Run. Don’t stop. Never stop.

And as the sliver of the first sun of the new age peaked its head over the horizon, with a swell of the man’s chest he saw her up ahead.

For there she was, the woman whom he met in the shadows of the darkness and her once eternal plight of the Scourge, now alive and more human than ever and joining him for the first time in the truth of the light. He ran to her, tears of joy trickling from his scarred eyes as the first glimmer of light cast its rays onto her beautiful face. Those cheeks that were once pale now creamy and flushed. Those eyes once black as death and red and blood now blue and shining like translucent waters. Those soft lips once made for feeding now pink and rosy and brimmed to a smile. Those claws now dainty fingers, laying splayed over the belly that was swollen and round and filled with the life they made together, a miracle come true after all hope was thought to be lost.

It was a miracle. Astrals bless them both.

It was a new dawn, a new day. A clean slate. And so as he pulled his mate into his embrace, she took his hand in hers and brought it up to her face, relishing in the warm of those fingers as they shared together the coming of the dawn together as one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am dying to hear your thoughts on the ending of this story! What did you all think?!
> 
> As a writer, there was something exceptionally moving about writing this story. I have always been one who has been fascinated with the supernatural but also the concepts of light and dark. To see the Reader transform and never lose sight of hope while facing the external and internal darkness of her life is something that I find to be incredibly inspiring. I hope you too have found some courage in yourselves by watching her grow. And as always, how much more can we possibly love Ignis? This man would go to hell and back for the people he loves. We need more men like him in the world.
> 
> Lily makes such a brief appearance and yet I think she serves an extremely profound role as a character. Why I chose that name though? I wanted something feminine and dainty, but there are many tiers of symbolism behind the flower of the same name: The flower, in all its various forms, is commonly considered to mean:
> 
> •royalty and regal bearing  
> •motherhood and fertility  
> •purity and the beauty of youth  
> •passion and drive  
> •renewal and rebirth
> 
> To me nothing could be more appropriate than how her name is connected to her sister, the Reader, as the Reader is in some shape or form an embodiment of all these characteristics and qualities.
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading. Your love and support has meant the world to me and makes me strive to write more stories to share with you all!


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